Immigration Article of the Day: Family Detention and Family Separation: History Struggle and Status by Mariela Olivares

Family Detention and Family Separation: History Struggle and Status by Mariela Olivares, 9 BELMONT L. REV. 512 (2022).

Abstract

The United States government has imprisoned immigrant families and children as a method of immigration enforcement and deterrence for decades. In my 2020 article, The Rise of Zero Tolerance and the Demise of Family, I explore family detention (i.e., the imprisonment of immigrant families) and the Trump administration’s expansion of this regime dedicated to decimating immigrant families in the United States by forcibly separating minor children from their fit parent or adult caregivers. In my earlier work, I assert that United States immigration policies targeting immigrant families are anchored in the political rhetoric that serves to oppress immigrants.

This Article reviews the current state of family detention and the continued traumatic effects of the Trump administration’s Family Separation Policy from 2017 to 2020. Although child and family detention and separation have been less prominent in media reporting in 2021 and 2022 than during the Trump presidency, children and families are still imprisoned in immigration jail. This remains an important and relevant discussion. This Article begins with a brief examination of the history of family separation and detention. The Article then shifts to focus on the current state of the detention and separation polices under President Biden. Although the Biden administration has stated that it will move away from policies that punish entering family migrants, the reality of the situation would suggest otherwise. Finally, this Article discusses the need to permanently end the practice of family detention and to prevent a recurrence of family separation.

KJ