The Separations of Families at The Border  

 The separations of families started no later than October of 2017. Jeff Sessions’ put in a zero-tolerance policy on illegal immigrants on the south-west border. Sessions publicly said, “If you cross the border, we will prosecute you, it’s that simple.”.  U.S. border patrol Manuel Padilla said that if adults are accompanied by children, children will be prosecuted temporarily while they go through a judicial process.  Although families were said to reunite after the patients’ case was over, that wasn’t always the case.  Children were not allowed in U.S. correctional facilities, so the children were placed in detention centers.  Many immigrant children reported sexual abuse, abuse, and they are experiencing trauma. In June of 2018, President Trump signs an order to keep immigrant families together.  

In a New York Times article, it has said that thousands of children had reported being sexually assaulted. Most of the sexual abuse the children were empiercing came from the staff at the detention centers.  Some of the staff members would kiss and touch on the children, watch them as they showered and molest them.  There were also some cases were minors raped other minors.  

The detention centers that the families were placed in what was said to be freezing like “coolers”.  Families were also made to sleep on the cold, hard, concrete floors. Some of the guards at the detention centers would treat them inhumanly, they were racist and homophobic. They would tease them and call the children and their families names. 

Not only did the children experience trauma from the sexual abuse and abuse but they were traumatized by the fact that they were separated by their parents. In one of the cases, there’s was a video that had went viral on social media of a baby boy running away from his mother solemnly from the fact that he thought his mother had abandoned him. In fact, his mother had never abandoned him, they were just separated. The Mother sobbed from the hurt she felt. She refused to believe the fact that her son didn’t love her anymore.  

In conclusion, even though these innocent children and their families came crossed the south-west border illegally, they didn’t deserve the inhumane treatment that they got. Children were sexually assaulted by guards, officials and other minors. Children and their families were treated poorly, called out of their names and having to sleep on the cold concrete floor. Lastly, these innocent children were put in traumatic situations that will stick with them for the rest of their lives.