The number of immigrant children in government custody has again hit an all-time high under Trump. The Trump administration also won’t rule out separating children from their families again, and troops Trump sent to the border as a political ploy are forced to stay there through the holidays. Here’s the latest:

The number of immigrant children in government custody hit an all-time high of more than 14,ooo under Trump.

San Francisco Chronicle: “The number of undocumented immigrant children in government custody has topped 14,000 for the first time, a rise that shows no signs of slowing as the Trump administration enforces policies that are keeping them in government facilities longer.”

Trump’s nominee to run ICE refused to rule out separating children from their families again.

Washington Post: “Ronald D. Vitiello, a veteran law enforcement official tapped by President Trump to run U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, faced criticism at his Senate confirmation hearing Thursday for refusing to rule out the possibility that the Trump administration could resort again to separating migrant parents and children at the U.S.-Mexico border.”

The Trump administration continues to tout family separation policies as an effective deterrent of illegal immigration.

Trump: “It’s almost like an incentive to — when they hear they’re not going to be separated, they come many, many times over.”

Washington Post: “‘That option and that discussion is underway,’ Vitiello told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. He would not address lawmakers’ questions seeking clarity on how long he believed migrant children should be detained, and whether the separation from their families caused them psychological harm. ‘We’ll get less people bringing their children,’ he added. ‘It is an option.’”

Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda scared immigrant families away from applying for food stamps.

Vox: “After two years of Donald Trump and his anti-immigrant rhetoric, fewer immigrant families are using federal food stamps — even though no formal changes have been made to the program or its eligibility rules. The implication, according to researchers who have been studying the program for decades and other experts tracking the consequences of Trump’s immigration crackdown, is families who should still be eligible for those benefits — and who still need them — have voluntarily decided to leave the program for fear that they would be at risk if they applied through the official channels.”

Thousands of troops that Trump sent to the border remain there through the holidays, with little electricity and no combat pay.

New York Times: “With little electricity, no combat pay and holidays away from home, the 5,600 American troops on the southwest border are on a mission ordered by a politically determined commander in chief and a Pentagon unable to convince him of its perils.”

CNN: “Trump also said Saturday that the US military will remain at the US-Mexico border ‘as long as necessary,’ suggesting that the 5,900 troops deployed to the border could stay there past December 15, the scheduled end of the mission.”

The Trump administration has not been able to provide a long-term objective for why Trump sent troops to the border.

NBC News: “The longer-term objective, he said, is ‘somewhat to be determined.’ ‘When you’re in something like this,’ Mattis said, ‘it’s dynamic, it’s unpredictable. We’ll have to see’ what develops with the potential for Central American migrants to try to cross into the U.S. illegally.”