Part I
“Lost Children”

An uproar concerning the thousands of “missing children” lost by the federal government, as well as the separation of immigrant families, have caused us to think more critically about what is actually going on in the White House and at the border. We will look at the Office of Refugee Resettlement and its responsibilities regarding immigrant children, as well as the Trump Administration’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy and how it is related to these previously mentioned issues.
Stephen Wagner, an official from the Department of Health and Human Services, said in April that the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) could not confirm the location of “1,475 unaccompanied alien children.”

"The ORR exists under the Department of Health and Human Services and serves both unaccompanied children and children who are separated from their families. Though “refugee” is in the name of the department, it is important to note that immigrant children are not considered refugees. The ORR provides care for children including “group homes... residential treatment centers...classroom education, health care...access to legal services, and case management” (acf.hhs.gov).

They orchestrate the redistribution of children to family members already in the U.S., guardians, or U.S. foster families. (This is done in spite of the fact that many children still have able parents.) The notion that many children have become “lost” once the leave ORR custody is misconstrued, and this excerpt from the Bipartisan Policy Center explains:

In the last quarter of 2017, ORR used [voluntary] phone calls to follow up on the care of over 7,635 formerly unaccompanied immigrant children who had been placed with adult sponsors in the United States and were no longer in ORR custody. ORR received no response in 1,475 of these cases. However, no response does not mean the children are missing. The sponsors may simply not have responded, not received the messages, or chose not to respond because they or someone in their household is undocumented.

The reasons behind the arrival of thousands of unaccompanied children fleeing their home countries and seeking asylum in the U.S. over the years include intense violence and extreme poverty in their home countries, as well as the desire to reunite with family who already live in the United States. This general number includes children arriving years before the new immigration policy as far back as 2014.

Part II
Zero Tolerance: Then and Now

Then:

The Trump Administration’s zero tolerance crackdown on illegal immigration has caused an uproar both within the U.S. and across the globe. The policy took the idea of legal criminal prosecution to the next level. It enforces criminal charges on individuals and families seeking asylum, and who have already tried to enter the U.S. by legal means.
Families arrive at the southern U.S. border after weeks of travel, legally seeking asylum and requesting to come into the country through the correct routes. However, many are told there is no room and are turned away. Some families may then attempt to cross without inspection by border patrol, and if they are apprehended would be subject to criminal proceedings.
This use of criminal policy necessitates the separation of adult family members from their children, as children and adults cannot be held in the same detention centers under U.S. law. Adult and child immigration cases are handled separately in court as well. If civil detention were used instead of criminal detention, families would be kept intact and kept in family detention centers.
Once separated it can be very difficult for parents and children to be reunited during and after the legal process. Information between the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of Refugee Resettlement is not easily exchanged, which makes locating children even more difficult. This can potentially lead to months of separation “before parents and children are reunited in the United States or in their home countries” (Bipartisan Policy).

Now:

On Wednesday, June 20th, President Trump signed yet another executive order. This one stops the separation of families, but still upholds his “zero tolerance” policy and will continue to prosecute people who enter the U.S. without documentation. He states that families will, from this point, be held in family detention centers “where appropriate and consistent with law and available resources.”
This opens up yet another complication; the Flores settlement. This 2015 court order prevents the government from detaining children for longer than 20 days. This proposes a problem for families being detained as it prevents young children, and by extension entire families, from being held legally for longer than the 20 day maximum.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been tasked with asking the courts to remove this settlement in order to allow families with children to be detained indefinitely, or until their court proceedings can be carried out (NPR).
Children have yet to be reunited with their parents. The executive order was said to be carried out in the days after it was signed, so it is unclear if currently separated families will be reunited.

Sources cited in this article:

About the author:  Casey Breneman is a rising third year at the University of Virginia studying Spanish and Latin American Studies. She is a native of Harrisonburg and enjoys hiking with her two sisters, participating in musical theatre productions, and exploring downtown Charlottesville.