separating children border
Start writing a post
Politics

What Is Going On Down By the Border

If you're confused, let's unpack all of this

673
detained children separated us mexico border
PBS / YouTube

In April, U.S. Attorney General, Jeff Sessions ordered a 'zero tolerance' policy for illegal border crossing. ICE began separating children from families of immigrants who crossed the border illegally, sending the children to immigrant detention centers and the parents to jails awaiting criminal prosecution. Normally, when undocumented immigrants are detained, the government has the choice to either submit them for deportation hearings or prosecute them for unlawful entry, which is considered a misdemeanor. Deportation is an administrative process and families are kept together. It's fast and inexpensive. Prosecution on the other hand is a criminal process. When an immigrant is prosecuted, they are charged for a crime and sent to a jail to await trial. Unlike an immigration detention center where an immigrant and their family would go if they were awaiting a deportation hearing, jails do not offer family housing. Anyone prosecuted is separated from their family. Prosecution is time consuming and expensive.

Before the policy change, previous administrations would prosecute people who committed serious crimes or felony offenses and families that crossed the border would just be deported and families could be kept together. Instead, children are separated from their parents, and sent to the office of refugee resettlement housing. Because the police was announced without anytime for preparations, the office of refugee resettlement is unable to keep up with the increased workflow of finding family members and sponsors for the children.

The conditions for the children have been described as bleak. The detention centers where children are allowed to legally be kept at for a maximum of three days are overcrowded with up to twenty children in rooms described as cage like. They are given bags of chips and a few water bottles as well as thin mats and foil blankets as bedding. Normally, a detention center would be for older unaccompanied minors but isn't fit for younger children. Parents who had been interview said that they haven't been told where they are taking their kids and some parents have even been lied to, saying their children were being taken away for a bath. Because there is so much overcrowding, tent cities in the desert have been built almost overnight for children and reporters have not been given access.

At this moment, it's unknown if these children will be reunited with their families because the Trump Administration doesn't have clear policy on how the children will be reunited. Trump has said he will sign an executive order to stop separating children, but hasn't explain how children who have already been separated will be reunited. A lot of people on social media and press have made connections to the situation to events in history including slavery when families were separated during slave auctions, or during the holocaust when parents and children were separated in camps, as well as the Japanese internment camps in world war two as a response to Pearl Harbor. George Takei, who had been moved to an internment camp at age five even said, "At least during the internment of Japanese-Americans, I and other children were not stripped from our parents"

The connections are quite scary, but according to Webster's dictionary, a concentration camp is .a camp where persons (such as prisoners of war, political prisoners, or refugees) are detained or confined, and currently the children that are separated could be considered political prisoners since Trump has alluded to using them as leverage against congress and mexico to fund the wall. Since May, 2342 children have been separated. Trump signed an executive order to stop further separation of children at the border however, there is nothing in the policy that covers how the administration plans to reunite families if they even plan to. Currently, there are shelters across fifteen different states in the U.S. that are housing the separated children.

Report this Content
This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
Featured

22 Songs To Use For Your Next GoPro Video

Play one of these songs in the background for the perfect vacation vibes.

304120
Pexels

We've all seen a Jay Alvarez travel video and wondered two things: How can I live that lifestyle and how does he choose which song to use for his videos?

Keep Reading... Show less
Featured

13 Roleplay Plots You Haven't Thought Of Yet

Stuck on ideas for a roleplay? Here you go!

408781
13 Roleplay Plots You Haven't Thought Of Yet
Pixabay

One thing that many creators know is that fun to have characters and different universes to work with but what's the point if you have nothing to do with them? Many people turn to roleplay as a fun way to use characters, whether they're original or from a fandom. It'd a fun escape for many people but what happens when you run out of ideas to do? It's a terrible spot to be in. So here are a few different role play plot ideas.

Keep Reading... Show less
Featured

Deep in the Heart of Texas

A Texan's responsibilities when introducing an out-of-stater to Texas culture.

1358

While in college, you are bound to be friends with at least one person who is not from Texas. Now Texas is a culture of its own, and it is up to you to help introduce them to some good ole Texas traditions during their time here. Show your friends that famous Southern hospitality!

Keep Reading... Show less
Featured

Marching Through March

Some appreciation for the month of March.

2165
Pexels

I love the entire year. Well, for the most part. I'm not a big fan of Winter, but even then, every month has something that's pretty great. November? Thanksgiving. December? Winter Holidays. January? New Year's. February? Valentine's and Single Awareness Day. May? Existential dread during finals. But for me, March has always been my favorite month of the year, and for good reason.

Keep Reading... Show less
Content Inspiration

Top 3 Response Articles of This Week

See what's trending in our creator community!

2930
Top 3 Response Articles of This Week
gouletballet.files.wordpress.com

Welcome to post-spring break week on Odyssey! Our creators have a fresh batch of articles to inspire you as you hit the books again. Here are the top three response articles of last week:

Keep Reading... Show less

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments