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The boys play around the fence between Sunland Park, New Mexico and the United States on August 10, 2018.
By HERIKA MARTINEZ / AFP / Getty Images.
Three months later Donald Trump ceded to global opprobrium and ended his government's policy of separating children from their parents on the Mexican border, the zero tolerance directive continues to be felt, and reports have emerged that, in one year, the number of migrants The number of children detained by the US government increased from 2,400 to more than 13,000, while the number of monthly border crossing points remained relatively unchanged. The increase, combined with the fact that the average period of detention rose from 34 to 59 days, resulted in a housing crisis. As a result, hundreds of children – some wearing belts carrying their emergency contact information – were packed in buses, transported for hours, and dropped off in a tented town in a desert expanse in Tornillo. West Texas. according to The New York Times, these trips usually take place in the middle of the night and on short notice to prevent children from fleeing.
The focus of the child separation crisis has been one of the worst in the history of the Trump administration, and the tent city of Tornillo is no exception. The center would be managed according to the "guidelines" provided by the Department of Health and Social Services, but access to legal aid is limited, and children – who sleep in bunk beds by sex in blocks of 20 – receive exercise books. formal education. In theory, the hundreds of children sent to Tornillo each week should only be detained for a short time; the center was inaugurated in June as a temporary space for about 400 people. Since then, however, it has been extended to accommodate 3,800 occupants for an indefinite period.
Once again, the latency is largely thanks to the White House. As a general rule, children labeled "unaccompanied minors" are held by the federal government until they can be matched with sponsors, who host them while their immigration records filter in front of them. courts. But thanks to the severe rhetoric adopted by the White House, these sponsors are now rare. These are often undocumented immigrants themselves, which means that in this environment, pretending that a child is putting them at risk of deportation. In June, this risk became even more serious when the authorities announced that potential sponsors should submit their fingerprints, as well as those of all adults living in their households: data that would then be transmitted to the authorities of the country. immigration. Matthew Albence, working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, unintentionally illustrated the problem when he testified before Congress last week that I.C.E. arrested several people who had asked to sponsor unaccompanied minors. Almost three quarters had no criminal record.
Over time, the number of children in custody should only increase. according to The Washington Post, the stream of immigrants from Central America moving north, driven by "hunger, unemployment and the gravitational pull of the US economy," shows no signs of slowing down . The number of men crossing the border with children would have increased from 7,896 in 2016 to 16,667 this year, while the number of migrants falsely claiming children as theirs would have been "tripled". "Economic opportunities and governance play a much bigger role in the decision of migrants to travel north to the United States", Kevin McAleenan, a border security official, said at the To post, adding that a "sustained campaign that considers both incentive and attraction factors" is "the only solution to this crisis".
Given the attitude of the current administration, such a campaign seems unlikely to materialize. As Congress is not well positioned to adopt a comprehensive immigration reform and detention system that is suddenly cumbersome in terms of money and resources and undermines the mental health of thousands of children, the growing crisis seems poised to become a thorn in the world. more and more serious from the president. Although the White House is convinced that, as a hard force Stephen Miller boasts, he can not lose on immigration, he will be forced to recognize that his draconian strategy has turned into chaos.
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