It's not a law, there is no law saying that it should happen. Trump is taking the blame because he's using it to try force negotiations and saying that it's a democratic party/Obama law.
What is actually happening is that A.G. Sessions is interpreting three laws in a combination that results in this policy:
- Illegally entering the country can result in fines, or prison for a maximum of 6 months, or both
- Government should release children from immigration detention without unnecessary delay, to (in order of child preference):
- Parents
- Other relatives
- Programmes willing to take them
If not possible to do this immediately the government should provide somewhere safe that suits childs age, disabilities, etc.
- Bill signed by Bush Jr. that said the time limit for some children in the previous bullet point is 72 hours.
With all of these combined the government has four options:
- Release parents that cross with their children
- Release and fine parents that cross with their children
- Detain parents together with their children, prosecute parents
- Prosecute parents, detain children for max 72 hours (in some cases)
Previous governments have done number 2, or number 1 in some cases. Trumps administration is the first to do number 4. Yes, they're following the law - but they're also being rather unethical by using it as bargaining, in addition the UN has also warned the US that separating families is against some of the UN regulations.
Edit: "The United States announced it is leaving the U.N.’s Human Rights Commission on Tuesday.
The move comes at time when the U.N. Human Rights Commission (a 47-member body with rotating terms) and refugee agency have both condemned the president’s
policy of separating children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexican border before they get the chance to apply for refugee status. On Monday, the U.N. rights chief
called the Trump administration of splitting migrant families “unconscionable.”"
https://thinkprogress.org/u-s-leaves-the-u-n-human-rights-council-2bf690606819/
funny that many people didnt care when it was under obama administration
Because it didn't happen like this under Obama