Ali Noorani on the “Moral Tragedy” of Trump’s Child Separation Policy, and Why It Isn't Obama's Fault

Immigration expert Ali Noorani joined Boston Public Radio on Monday, offering a rebuke to President Trump’s attempts to pass blame for caging children at the U.S.-Mexico border onto the Obama administration. 

“Who built the cages, Joe?” Trump asked former Vice President Joe Biden during the September presidential debate. 

Noorani said that while it’s true that facilities in question were build under President Obama in 2014, their intended purpose was substantially different from their eventual use by the current president. 

"They were set up as temporary holding facilities for children; unaccompanied minors at that point,” he explained. “The Trump administration took that infrastructure, and weaponized it.”

And while the National Immigration Forum CEO admitted his organization has “many concerns” about the immigration policies of former President Obama, he described the Trump administration’s family separation policy as a “moral tragedy,” that’s left 545 children still without their parents. 

Ali Noorani is the President and CEO of the National Immigration Forum. His latest book is "There Goes the Neighborhood: How Communities Overcome Prejudice and Meet the Challenge of American Immigration.”