Family separation is a practice that most people associate with Trump-era immigration policy. However, this was already happening well before Trump’s “zero tolerance” reform was enacted at the borders. Children were being separated by their families through a program being conducted along several locations at the border, namely El Paso, Texas. Beginning in mid-2017, this program ensured that adults with even young children were criminally charged, detained, and separated for crossing the border, even if it was a first-time offense.
It’s reasonable to expect that at some point in the near future, children would be reunited with their parents. But this was not, and is not, the case.
Because the government did not create any type of system to track separated families to make the reunification process efficient, parents could not get their children back. By the end of the year, even families crossing over through official ports of entry were being separated and detained.
How did this practice evolve under the Trump administration. To put it briefly, it got increasingly muddled and anxiety-inducing.
By May of 2018 came Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy. This meant that any individuals crossing the border illegally, even refugees, were to be considered for prosecution by the Department of Justice immediately. Any children under 18 who came with an adult were subsequently taken by the Department of Health and Human Services, and placed hundreds of miles away in shelters littered across the country.
Despite laws in place to protect refugees, there have been several cases in which families were separated unlawfully, violating due process. Between April and May of 2018, the DHS admitted to separating some 2,000 families.
The policy was so so traumatic for families, that it drove some to suicide, which the government at that point refused to break silence on.
Living conditions for children were no better. In the city of McAllen, Texas, separated children were placed in an old warehouse in metal cages. Made to sleep in thin foil sheets, the older ones have assumed responsibility for the toddlers and infants there, forced to perform tasks such as changing diapers. There is no access to any sort of educational enrichment, such as books or even toys.
Despite the mounting evidence that family separation was happening at an alarming rate by order of the Trump administration, there were still members of his cabinet categorically denying it.
Finally, in June of 2018, Trump, under growing public scrutiny, directed the DHS to halt the brutal practice and after a lawsuit filed by the ACLU, the DHS was ordered to reunite families within a month. Even with the court order, however, there were still issues with reunification beyond the deadline.
Though this was, in theory, good news, the abuse and separation still continued, though much more secretive than before.
In 2019, the DHS received several thousand complaints of sexual assault and abuse, with many offenders being the adult staff members themselves. At that point, in March, a judge then expanded the class-action lawsuit filed by the ACLU earlier.
The bottom line is, the human rights abuses at the border continued all throughout the Trump administration, despite the judicial branch’s attempts to reunite families. Fast forward to October 2020, a report released by the House Judiciary Committee exposes all the recklessness and brutality perpetuated by the administration through the “zero tolerance” policy.
With Biden confirmed as the next president, there was a legitimate hope and expectation that these Trump-era policies would be rolled back and some humanity would be re-introduced into the immigration system.
And, at first, there were definitely some well-intentioned efforts. But they didn’t last very long.
Biden’s reunification task force by December of 2021 reunited some 2,200 children with their families but around 1,700 were still not at that point. However, a new report by the National Immigrant Justice Center revealed that families were continuing to be separated at the border in a routine fashion, and that Biden is even refusing to pay compensation for all the trauma inflicted upon migrant families by the government.
So, it seems that Biden is simultaneously separating and reuniting families. His administration also seems to be defending key Trump-era immigration policies in court while rolling back others. This confused response to the border crisis is not easing the minds of both migrants and concerned Americans.
We are yet to see any meaningful shift in ending family separation policies by the administration.
