Tlaib: Jeff Sessions should be sent 'to the Hague' for role in family separation policy

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Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib questions HHS inspector general Christi Grimm during House Oversight Committee on Oversight and Reform briefing on the Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., called Tuesday for Jeff Sessions to face prosecution in international court after a report detailing the former attorney’s role in the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy.

Tlaib lashed out at Sessions after the New York Times published details from a draft copy of the Justice Department inspector general’s two-year investigation into the administration’s border policy, which in 2018 called for the prosecution of all illegal immigrants.

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In May 2018, Sessions informed U.S. prosecutors who objected to family separations that they “need to take away children” and “won’t give amnesty to people with kids,” according to notes from meeting participants.

“Send him to The Hague,” Tlaib tweeted alongside a link to the New York Times report.

The inspector general’s report identified Sessions and former deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein as “a driving force” behind the family separation policy, according to the Times. The Trump administration faced an international outcry after amid reports that young children were kept in cages and separated from their families for months.

“If you smuggle illegal aliens across our border, then we will prosecute you,” Sessions said at a press conference on May 7, 2018. “If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you and that child will be separated from you as required by law.”

President Trump ended the family separations by executive order in June 2018.

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Sessions declined to be interviewed for the inspector general's report and did not respond to a request for comment in the Times’ report on its findings. Rosenstein defended his role in implementing the policy.

“If any United States attorney ever charged a defendant they did not personally believe warranted prosecution, they violated their oath of office,” Mr. Rosenstein said in a statement. “I never ordered anyone to prosecute a case.”

Tlaib is considered a member of the "Squad,” a group of progressive first-term congresswomen that includes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. The group has emerged as fierce critics of the Trump administration, including its border security policies.