In Phase 3, we were asked to pick out of various articles provided to us. When we picked the article we were placed in groups with the same people who wanted the article. I picked the one about Haitian immigrants crossing the Texan Border. Then we focused on the topic, immigration, as a whole and wired it down to something smaller. I choose to write about immigrant children and their journey and adjustment to America.

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Child Immigrants

Due to a wide encounter of immigrants leaving their native country to achieve the “American Dream,” 136,986 women and children were apprehended at the southern border of the United States in 2014. Most were placed in detention centers and the rest were deported due to the lack of space. People who tend to migrate are often those who are facing poverty, escaping natural disasters, debt, gang activity, government corruption, and/or seeking asylum. People traveling from South American countries must endure a journey that can take up to months, sometimes even years. They have to travel through various countries and through dangerous territories such as the Darien Gap, a dense jungle located between Mexico and Panama. With the dangers of being mugged or physically abused or assaulted, those who go through this journey tend not to get sleep and spend days to weeks walking until they get to their desired destination of safety. Minors unaccompanied or with their families who took the rigorous journey have a higher chance of developing mental health problems due to the traumatic scenes they endure. During the research process, it proved difficult to find the information directly from immigrants or the children who went through the immigration journeys, because they would not actively engage in research that could potentially put them in danger again. After examining all the perspectives and research on the topic of immigrant minors, I will argue that minors shouldn’t have to endure a rigorous journey and border procedures such as being placed in packed detention centers. Minors experience negative effects from the whole journey, which will create a difficult adjustment to their lives in the U.S if they aren’t deported. There should be different methods for people in need in other countries to enter the U.S. safely and legally.

The reasons for South and Central American immigrants to migrate to the U.S. varies, but the severity of the risks do not. Most immigrants will endure running away from border patrol which will most likely cause them to injure themselves, a broken leg, or hand. Susan J. Terrio is the author of “Whose Child am I?: unaccompanied, undocumented children in the U.S. Immigration Custody” published in May 2015, which speaks on the journey immigrant minors take in order to achieve the “American Dream.” The “American Dream” is the idea that there is equal opportunity in America where someone can aspire to be anything and be able to achieve their greatest goal. The book brings attention to the hardships that children face in the home countries that force them to make the dangerous journey to America. Terrio takes the role of instigator attempting to understand why children (ages 9-17) would take such a dangerous journey. She also includes the perspective of border patrol and their reasoning as to why they treat immigrants harshly. One story showed a 9-year-old boy who left his country due to a lack of a permanent home and no opportunity to attend school. His near-death experience in escaping a gang and jumping from train to train to avoid la migra, border patrol, portrays the difficulties and his reasoning behind taking the life-or-death journey (Terrio 52). Not all survive, stories are told of other immigrants seeing toes, fingers, even legs, and other limbs in the road from those who didn’t survive the gruesome journey. A border patrol agent spoke out because of humanitarian concerns; he has encountered “children [who] have been raped and abandoned by their own smugglers…. Parents send their kids with people who get drunk, use drugs, and smuggle dope…. [These] ‘bad’ parents who left their children behind…exposed them to life-threatening situations” (Terrio 74). Border Patrol states that they are doing their job and following orders, they don’t understand why parents would place their children into harm’s way knowing that they’ll be separated.  Border Patrol has systemic issues when minors attempt to lie about their age in order to be tried as adults and deported so that they can cross the border again (Terrio 75). Another story about a teen girl named Maribel who told the truth of her age explains how she was placed in a detainment center that was clean and felt nice, but after a couple of days, it felt like a prison. They weren’t allowed to leave and it caused the young girls to be overwhelmed and feel helpless and anxious. Maribel stated “‘Everybody there had depression, and the girls were always crying… Life stopped there, life ended. There was no life because all we could see was the fence and the electric cables’” (Terrio 79). From hearing Maribel’s story it is clear that the children being detained began to develop mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. Immigrant children suffer during the 1,500+ mile trek to reach the border, they see gruesome scenes, endure life-threatening scenarios, and begin to develop mental health issues at detainment centers. The unfortunate children that went through the journey will have to combat mental health and the trauma they endure for the journey itself. 

As known from the previous source, immigrant children develop mental health issues when placed in detainment centers. Luis Zayas, a psychiatry professor at the University of Texas at Austin goes further into research as the children begin to adjust to American society. Zayas wrote an article titled “Charting Directions for Research on Immigrant Children Affected by Undocumented Status” published in his Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, which addresses the mental effects on immigrant children in the United States. Unaccompanied minors and children who cross the border with their parents tend to have “exposure to trauma and stress, displacement, legal liminality, acculturative stress, educational gaps, [and] complicated family reunifications” (Zaya 416). These children, once in the U.S., don’t know how to act due to the culture shock because their customs may not be present in the U.S. These may include children taking up adult roles, being unsafe, traveling alone, taking care of other children, or doing drugs. Zaya’s research on the topic wasn’t fully successful as undocumented immigrants don’t necessarily sign up for it because of fear of being deported. This creates a need to integrate other sources that have a deeper understanding on the topic and have directly spoken to immigrants or are immigrants themselves. 

To understand the history of detention centers Temi Omilabu writes an article that supplies us with information on the legal cases that were placed against these detention centers. Omilabu, author of  “Detention of Immigrant Children amid a Global Pandemic: Jenny Flores’ America,” published her article in the American Journal of Law and Medicine in January 2021 and speaks on the immigration process during the covid pandemic uprising by giving background context on detention centers. Omilabu’s purpose was to educate readers of the lengthy process of detention centers and emphasize the treatment of them in detention centers by supplying her readers with background context of past legal battles. The Flores’ Settlement is a legal case that spoke about the mistreatment of minors and the lack of due process and basic human rights that detained children were not supplied with. This case had to do with Jenny Flores, an unaccompanied 15-year-old that wanted to live with her aunt in Los Angeles after escaping the Salvadoran Civil War. When she arrived at the border she was quickly detained and strip searched then placed into a detainment center where she was not allowed to be released to her aunt without an “unusual and extraordinary circumstance”(Omilabu 524). These detainment centers wren’t supplied with proper health care, education, nutrition, or psychiatric units that’ll help the minors with all they’ve been through. The legal battle came to a conclusion with the settlement being that an individual group conducted by FSA, Flores Settlement Agreement, would oversee the detainment centers and ensure fair treatment and the proper release of minors. After Trump became president the FSA was released and the ORR, Office of Refugee Resettlement, and ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement took over. These organizations kept immigrant children in unlicensed facilities, because of the overbearing population of immigrants entering there was a restraint in space, hygienic supplies, and lack of proper living accommodations (Omilabu 527-28). Omilabu speaks on the inhumane “torture facilities” being called detention centers and the backtracking of “fixing” the problem in 1985 turned back into the worst of the worst with the global pandemic also occurring. The detention centers can be described as “’ overcrowded,’ ‘unhygienic,’ and ‘unsafe.’” The ORR oversees the immigrant children meaning they hold “minors, including infants, toddlers, and preschoolers” and these children are often seen “sleeping on concrete floors; they are being given instant meals that lack [proper] nutritional value” (Omilabu 524). Omilabu has expressed great concern in the way immigrant children are being treated and how unaccompanied minors are being treated as adults including strip searches even if they are in their teen years. Not only have these children been robbed of a family and the feeling of safety, but they are also not being informed about the severity of the global pandemic. The so-called safety protocols being taken by the ORR are nearly impossible to execute safely due to the congregate living of immigrants in these detention centers, leading to a higher possibility of illness. Since these children are being separated from their families and placed in detention centers their trauma will impact their day-to-day lives with them having developed mental health problems. 

From hearing of the unsanitary living accommodations the detainment centers children face, it makes sense that they would develop illnesses. This reality is discussed in Sarah M. Baker, Luke Z. Li, and Russell Steele’s article “Detainment of Immigrant Children,” published in Clinical Pediatrics. Baker, Li, and Steele’s focus is to inform the readers, fellow pediatricians, and the ORR of the effects that children face while being held in detention centers and during their journey to arrive at the border. Immigrant children face diseases such as tuberculosis, hepatitis B, STI’s, and more when being placed in unsanitary locations and not being properly examined by a medical professional in the ORR detention locations (Baker et al. 267). The origins of the diseases are unknown but speculated to come from the detention centers, the journey, or a combination of both. If left untreated the illness can lead to something more life-threatening such as cancer. The risks that children make to be able to arrive back to their families are tremendous. They specifically talk about the case of two teen brothers from Honduras attempting to come to the U.S. to reunite with their mother and new family. Both brothers end up in a detainment facility together and they protect each other from the ongoing fights of other youths. Once they are reunified with their family one of the teens falls ill and the doctors can’t explain the reason until they learn his story. Doctor Baker, Li, and Steele discuss all possibilities of diseases in their article until it is identified what the teen has but the origin is speculated (Baker et al. 268). Immigrant children can face diseases when placed in detainment centers that aren’t properly looked after. Not only do immigrant children face mental health problems but their physical health can be impacted as well.

From hearing different perspectives and reading up on the stories of minors who have faced traumatic incidents and continue to strive forward it’s clear that immigrant children face multiple negative effects when they take the journey across the border. By acknowledging the fact that immigrants have their own reasons to migrate to the U.S., I can’t disregard the effects children endure. The journey itself, especially for a minor who is traveling alone or with family, is even more dangerous than an adult. Not all survive, and Terrio wrote of young children taking this pathway and finding limbs along railroad tracks, and being kidnapped by drug cartels to be raped, beaten, starved, and nearly killed (Terrio 67). The diseases they can develop from the trek and in the unsanitary detention centers can have long-lasting effects if not treated properly.  Omilabu makes a point when she speaks on finding safer options for families and children in need who are seeking asylum or purely just want a better life; although that is primarily up to the government, we as the people of the United States can initiate change as well. First, the FSA, Flores’ Settlement Agreement, needs to step in again and oversee the detention centers to make sure they are following protocols. They care about the children placed in the centers and want what is best for them. They’ll initiate the children’s cases quicker than the ORR so that children don’t have to spend more than 20 days in the center before being reunified by family. This won’t be a permanent solution as there are still not enough locations in the detention centers, there must be a new policy that’ll help people that want to come to the U.S. in a safe and legal manner. Omilabu makes a point when she speaks on finding safer options for families and children in need who are seeking asylum or purely just want a better life; although that is primarily up to the government, we as the people of the United States can initiate change as well. Second, protests and organizations can be conducted to make the government listen to its people. Policies can be created by legislators to help others besides Americans, the U.S. is known for helping and supplying other countries, they can help people of countries that are falling apart, for example being Venezuela, Ecuador, Honduras, etc. We as the people who live in the U.S. citizen or non-citizen have to create change to help those who need it most.

Despite the various reasons why someone would migrate from their home country to the U.S., the possibility of being captured by a drug cartel or being placed in detention centers only to be deported is great. This possibility is higher for children who are seen as vulnerable and easily susceptible to trusting others. A child is not meant to endure miles of walking without sleeping and having to feel death around the corner. A child is meant to be safe and the countries of origin of these immigrants have failed to protect their own people. There needs to be more protection and policies placed to create a better life for families suffering and to be brought to the U.S. to achieve the “American Dream,” the poor and the misfortunate deserve to have the same opportunities as others to obtain a Visa and a possibility of residency in the U.S. 

Works Cited

Baker, Sarah M, Luke Z Li, and Russell W Steele. “Detainment of Immigrant Children.” Clinical pediatrics 58.3 (2019):

266–269.

Omilabu, T. (2020). Detention of Immigrant Children amid a Global Pandemic: Jenny Flores’  America. American Journal

of Law & Medicine, 46(4), 519-526. 

Terrio, Susan J. Whose Child Am I?: Unaccompanied, Undocumented Children in U.S.  Immigration Custody. 1st ed.,

University of California Press, 2015.

Zayas, Luis H et al. “Charting Directions for Research on Immigrant Children Affected by Undocumented Status.”

Hispanic journal of behavioral sciences 39.4 (2017): 412–435.