A MORAL FAILING: President Trump's Impact on the Treatment of Immigrant Children in U.S. Detention

Abstract

In 2017, President Trump formulated his zero-tolerance policies, aiming to deter immigrants from illegally crossing the border by threatening to prosecute adults and separate them from their children. For the first time in the nation’s history, the President of the United States supported policies that separated children from their parents. Given that immigrant children in detention experienced trauma from parental separation and lived in abysmal conditions, this thesis seeks to bring this humanitarian crisis to the forefront and suggest policy recommendations for President Joe Biden’s administration.

The central research question is: how did the Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies impact the treatment of immigrant children in the United States’ detention system? Using exploratory data analysis and a multivariable linear regression model, this thesis evaluates detention data from the Custom and Border Protection Agency (CBP) from 2017 to 2020. Because time in CBP holding cells was found to be “the most difficult and traumatic” period of detention for women and children, time detained in CBP is used as a proxy for the quality of treatment.

This study’s findings provide evidence that Trump’s anti-immigration agenda had a significant and detrimental impact on the treatment of immigrant children in U.S. detention. Trump’s policies were associated with overcrowded detention facilities and unbearable detention conditions. Analysis was unable to conclude if his policies adversely affected the treatment of immigrants from one region over another, but it did find that Trump’s policies resulted in the significant adverse treatment of immigrant girls and young children (aged 0-12 years old), compared to the treatment of immigrant boys and older children (12-18 years old).

Combined with qualitative research, this study finds that the increase in hours detained in CBP custody was due to a combination of factors: Trump’s zero-tolerance policy, his focus on detention, and his failure to implement the infrastructure necessary to humanely accommodate large numbers of detainees.

There is hope to improve the treatment of immigrant children with the Biden administration through the reversal of Trump’s policies and the addition of new support programs. After four years of Trump, the United States will finally have the opportunity to combat the humanitarian crisis that is immigrant family separation.