Trump administration family separation policy

Dora Melara is an attorney working for Justice in Motion, a US-based nonprofit. She took a road trip recently to track down some family members separated at the US border.

This Honduran lawyer reunites families separated at the US-Mexico border. It involves difficult road trips — and detective work.

Immigration

So far, much of the burden of finding families has been on nonprofits and lawyers like Dora Melara, who often start with very little information and have to rely on the kindness of strangers to track people down. 

A child is passed over a border wall to the arms of a man wearing jeans, a red cap and tan sweatshirt.

The pain of family separations is still being felt. What could Biden do? 

Migration
A woman traveling from Guatemala, who is six months pregnant with a boy, is examined by a volunteer medic in a motel.

US immigration system is full of hurdles for pregnant women and new mothers

Immigration
sisters

A father with HIV was separated from his daughters at the border

Immigration
A persons hands hand onto the metal of the border wall

Trump administration plans rule change that allows indefinite detention for migrants

Immigration
A group of protesters walk down a street holding a sign

Detention centers are ‘worthy of your disgust’ in their own right, says Jewish Latina activist

Justice

The term “concentration camps” has been used to describe migrant detention centers on the southern border under the Trump administration — and not without controversy. But the term has particularly affected some Latinx Jews.

A woman and three men walk next to a fence with razor wire.

Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen is the latest departure of the Trump Administration

Immigration

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has resigned at President Trump’s request. This comes development comes after Trump’s frustration with illegal immigrants and asylum seekers at the Mexican border, which prompted him to recently threaten to close the border. Nielsen oversaw many of Trump’s most controversial immigration policies, including family separations at the border.

A woman holds a visibly distraught woman with her face in her hand.

Arizona volunteers form ‘underground’ network to house migrants released by ICE

Immigration

In last three months, ICE has released some 107,000 migrant parents and children in Texas, Arizona and California, many without next steps in place. Shelters, churches and volunteers have stepped in to help these families get to their next destinations. Most are trying to join relatives and friends elsewhere.

A portrait of a father wearing a pink shirt and his infant daughter who is wearing white.

Why is the US still separating migrant families at the border?

Immigration

A court injunction and presidential order last year were supposed to end the practice. But Border Patrol is still deciding to separate hundreds of families as new reports and Congressional hearings shed light on the controversial practice.

A slatted metal prototypes of a border wall is shown, photographed through the border wall in Tijuana, Mexico.

Trump signed an order for the wall 2 years ago. The US just ended the longest shutdown ever over it.

Immigration

Despite signing an executive order for the wall on Jan. 25, 2017, there’s been no construction or funding on the project. What has happened in the last two years?