Children and immigration’s role in democracy

U.S. Department of Homeland Security holding complex. Courtesy photo

By Lisa Geon, Yolitzma Gonzalez, Annette Martinez, Diana Moreno, Brenda Valencia

California State University, Long Beach

Scholars suggest that racism and xenophobia contribute to the humanitarian crisis of migration. Racism and xenophobia can lead individuals to think that the West is democratic and migrant people are not and negatively influence United States (U.S.) society. In addition, empirical literature has found that migrant parents are perceived as “unfit” parents in welfare services. This way of thinking can leave the community to believe that it is not in the country’s best interest to allow migrants to enter.

The number of unaccompanied children entering the United States without their parents continues to increase each year and has become an uprising point of discussion. In 2012 there were 24,403 unaccompanied children accounted for in the U.S.; in 2013, there were 38,759; in 2014, numbers nearly doubled to 68,541 unaccompanied minors in the U.S. Many of the children migrating to the U.S. come from Central America: Guatemala (32%), El Salvador (29%), Honduras (18%), and Mexico (20%). Further investigation on the statistics on unaccompanied children show in F.Y. 2020, 68% were male, and 32% female, 72% of the children were between the ages of 15-18, while the remaining 28% were between the ages of 0-14. Children take a massive risk by migrating to a new country where they may not speak the language and are fleeing violence, exploitation, and seeking socioeconomic opportunities. Others attempt to reunite with their parents and family members; however, the immigration system and policy implementation continue to separate families. Unaccompanied children’s migration journey also places these children in dangerous situations. It forces them to face the effects of migrating, leading to extreme disparities, constraints, physical and mental obstacles, complex at-risk life events threatening their life during their migration journey, and placed in unsuitable living placements when arriving in the U.S.

Children are exposed to physical and sexual assault, abandonment by travelers, powerless to find sanctuary and food, lack of placement for these children after arriving in the U.S. heightens the percentage of these unaccompanied children be exposed to continuing traumatic events even after stepping foot on U.S. soil. This vulnerable population is affected negatively by the structure of policies, lack of protection, lack of placement, mistreatment due to lack of legal access, inadequate education, and limited access to mental health assessment and services. Research shows that the U.S. governments faces barriers fostering, developing policies and regulations on health, social service, and legal systems to balance the welfare of the entering unaccompanied children.

In 2012, an attorney from the Women’s Refugee Commission interviewed 151 children detained in Texas and discovered “that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) still harassed them with racial slurs and insults’’. Children detained in immigration facilities are often forced to endure racism that leads to the maltreatment of immigrant children that can have long-term effects on their social, psychological, and emotional well-being. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 fails to secure the fair treatment of unaccompanied immigrant children under the care of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and CBP. The criminalization of immigrants fuels the racist and xenophobic sentiment of native-born individuals toward the immigrant populations.

Criminalizing immigration has become the most popular justification for U.S. legislators to create unequal policies that affect the lives of immigrant individuals, children, and their families. In the 1980s, there was a need to expand detention centers in the U.S. to crack down on the increasing number of immigrants, where the central theme was to fight the war on drugs. While the Immigration Act of 1990 increased detention centers for immigrants, prisons were filled with offenders, both native-born individuals and immigrants, as mandated by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, among other laws. Nonetheless, illegal drugs and illegal aliens were often linked together and used in political discourse. During this time, immigrants became the scapegoat to defeating the war on drugs. Terrio (2015) reports that unaccompanied children had a sense of gratitude once detained, but this quickly shifted when inhumane acts were displayed toward them through verbal and physical abuse and inadequate food, bedding, or toiletry necessities. Educational curriculums also needed to be provided to these children within the centers but failed to do so. These children are a vulnerable population left to depend on facilities and providers since they are unaware of their entitled rights as someone seeking asylum.

Historical racism has contributed to the level of treatment given by these providers, where self-advocacy was discouraged, and other providers’ claims were also overlooked. Research demonstrates the lack of resources provided for these children within the facilities, such as not having access to education, appropriate housing, and inappropriate staff working at these detention centers. Recent political influences negatively impacted the resources provided, where unsanitary living conditions were overlooked and legal representation funds were not appropriately allocated. Despite having guidelines created to reinforce appropriate placement and legal representation, challenges such as language barriers hinder their ability to advocate for basic needs as well as inconsistency with follow through on legal services.

Policies that have been created and reinforced focus on ensuring children have a plan within 72 hours; however, with the arrival of more unaccompanied children, there has been a shift from short-term to other long-term facilities. These additional facilities practice inhumane treatment of children who are now kept for more extended periods in cruel ways that are degrading and similarly implemented in prisoner abuse. These centers go against policies that have been put into place, as evidenced by inadequate access to medical, dental, and mental health services. The current policies in place hold the Office of Refugee Resettlement responsible to “coordinate and implement care and placement of unaccompanied alien children”. However, unaccompanied children are at high risk for being re-traumatized when being placed in the current facilities as immigration officials are not prepared to take-in such high number of unaccompanied children entering the U.S.

Currently, the Homeland Security Act of 2002 does not address specific regulations that placement agencies and facilities should abide by to help undocumented children feel safe and secure. Unaccompanied children arrive in the U.S. with existing trauma from their home country and from traveling through often dangerous situations; it is therefore important to ensure that this vulnerable population be placed in facilities and homes that will mitigate their existing trauma. Currently, some children are being held in detention cells when they enter the U.S. and are then placed in larger institutional facilities where the staff oftentimes are not child welfare specialists. In addition, the current polices do not address a timeline for reunifying children with sponsors such as relatives or family friends who reside in the U.S. Media reports have shown that it takes months, sometimes years, for children to be reunited again with their parents or with family members living in the U.S. while the children await their legal immigration case to resolve. However, undocumented children have little to no legal recourse as the United States’ immigration system does not provide public defenders.

We make a public a call to the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Services, and Office of Refugee Resettlement to request the revision of the policies currently in place. We aim to request for the revised policies to reduce maltreatment and misplacements towards these vulnerable unaccompanied minors who are at a vulnerable developmental stage in their life striving to eliminate the inhumane conditions that unaccompanied children are often exposed to when apprehended by immigration officials. We suggest States to respond by creating uniform policies through the Department of Health and Human Services. These policies will provide instructions to Counties and Child Welfare agencies on how to provide mental health services, educate child welfare providers on how to address the concerns , and administer services to immigrant children. Furthermore, providing children with a free government-appointed attorney to represent them at court that considers the child’s ethnicity, culture, and native language to help navigate the legal system.