Responses edited for clarity*
When President Donald Trump ran for office in the 2016 elections, one of the main focal points of his campaign was to crack down on illegal immigration. As soon as he was elected, he did just that. On April 11, 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered the prioritization of illegal immigration criminalization by state governments.
In April 2018, Sessions announced a “zero tolerance policy” surrounding illegal immigration. Sessions acted in response to a 203 percent increase in illegal border crossings from 2017 to 2018 according to the United States Department of Justice. With this new policy in place, Attorney Generals in states along the Southwestern border were called to action to further prosecute people who crossed the borders illegally. Sessions claimed that asylum pleas of gang and domestic violence would no longer be accepted, and family separation began so that adults who crossed the border illegally could be prosecuted.
Under Trump’s administration, more than 2,600 children have been separated from their families at the border, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Under the care of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), seven children—Carlos Gregorio Hernández Vásquez, Wilmer Josué Ramírez Vásquez, Juan de León Gutierréz, Felipe Gómez Alonzo, Jakelin Amei Rosemery Caal Maquin, Mariee Juárez and Darlyn Cristabel Cordova-Valle—have died. These deaths mark the first time in 10 years that a migrant child has died while under U.S. custody.
Reports from left-leaning politicians, reporters and lawyers who recently toured facilities have been released, highlighting the “inhumane” conditions that immigrants face while waiting in detention centers along the border. In a detention center in Clint, Tex., the visitors found that the immigrants were overcrowded, unwashed and unfed.
Following the release of photos featuring crowded conditions at border patrol facilities in Texas from the Office of the Inspector General, U.S. representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, “These are concentration camps.” Ocasio-Cortez sparked a debate surrounding how to label these detention centers. Many nonpartisan Jewish organizations quickly condemned Ocasio-Cortez’s language, calling it insensitive to draw comparisons to the Holocaust.
On July 10, 2019, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform held a hearing titled “Kids in Cages: Inhumane Treatment at the Border.” In the hearing, the mother of 19-month-old Mariee Juárez, Yasmin Juárez spoke of the unjust treatment of children in the detention centers that ultimately resulted in the death of her daughter. “Mariee was a healthy baby girl when she was taken into ICE custody. But 20 days later, she left with a life-threatening infection. Small children do not belong in detention… Instead, my daughter is gone. The people who run these facilities are supposed to take care of these children,” says Yazmin Juárez.
On July 21, 2019, the Trump administration announced that they would begin to fast-track deportations for hundreds of thousands of immigrants. This would allow deportation officers to deport migrants without ever appearing in front of a judge.
“The expansion of fast-track deportations will strip hundreds of thousands of noncitizens of a fair hearing on whether they are to be deported … and will create a ‘show me your papers’ regime nationwide,” says Trina Realmuto, a directing attorney of litigation at the American Immigration Council in an article by the ACLU.
The median time families spend in the detention centers waiting to be reunited is 154 days.
“Kids belong in schools and playgrounds, not behind barbed wire,” says Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley in a statement read at a protest in Portland.
Despite Oregon’s strong opposition to Trump’s immigration policies, ICE is still present throughout the state. Within Oregon, there is one detention center, located in The Dalles. On average, 28 people are detained at this center annually. “It’s really easy to turn a blind eye,” says Grant junior Lillie Stewart. “It’s not just something that’s happening thousands of miles away at the U.S. Mexico border… Immigrants and refugees and asylum seekers are part of the communities that we live in.”
“They’re not concentration camps,” says Trump. “They’re really well-run.”
