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Mass deportation is another negative policy that is being pushed by the rise of nationalism and immigrant fear in the United States. This video depicts the lives of deportees and the harsh conditions they face that they were originally trying to escape by coming to the United States. It only continues to amplify as ICE hunts down and deports immigrants with no chance of legal immigration.

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About 40 percent of Mexican immigrants deported from the US are sent back through Tijuana. Many of the deported border crossers have established a makeshift shantytown inside a dry, concrete riverbed where the Tijuana River once flowed-called El Bordo. Read the full article here: http://www.vice.com/read/deportee-purgatory-000540-v20n5 Check out more VICE documentaries: http://bit.ly/VICE-Documentaries Subscribe to VICE here!

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In this TIME video, Sergio Avila, a conservation research scientist discusses the negative impacts on plants and animals as a result of a border wall. Barriers to population expansion for animals, survivability during seasonal changes, and ability to interact in a natural way will be obstructed by the wall, the roads it creates and surveillance technology that is put in place.

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How Would A Border Wall Affect the Environment? | TIME

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Not only does the border wall effect human mobility, but the mobility of animals and other life as well. This could potentially cause harm to the ecosystems and biodiversity in the areas surrounding the border. This article dives deeper into the negative consequences of a border wall and the damage to the environment as a whole with regard to construction and restriction.

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With the election of president Donald Trump, came the widely contested policy and promise of a border wall. It is a very nationalistic goal and may even further escalate the crisis at the Mexico border with relation to deaths and family separation at the United States border. This article discusses the desire for sovereignty and security within the United States.

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Reece Jones
Reece Jones is Associate Professor and Chair of Graduate Studies in the Department of Geography at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Parts of this article are excerpted from his new book, Border Walls: Security and the War on Terror in the United States, India, and Israel ( Zed Books, 2012).

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Reece Jones Reece Jones is Associate Professor and Chair of Graduate Studies in the Department of Geography at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Parts of this article are excerpted from his new book, Border Walls: Security and the War on Terror in the United States, India, and Israel ( Zed Books, 2012).

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The USMCA is the replacement for NAFTA. It provides stronger positive negotiations benefiting the United States. It attempts to create "a more level playing field" for American workers and strengthening food and agriculture in America to benefit farmers. It also includes clauses for United States intellectual property law, digital laws and focuses on benefiting smaller business by ending corruption and more positive regulation.

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The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) entered into force on July 1, 2020. The USMCA, which substituted the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a mutually beneficial win for North American workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses. The Agreement creates more balanced, reciprocal trade supporting high-paying jobs for Americans and grow the North American economy. Agreement highlights include:

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We hear the acronym used all the time by politicians and talking heads of news stations, but what is it? NAFTA is the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, The United States, and Mexico. It allows for free trade, easier mobility between nations and lifts tariffs on goods between them. This is a good thing, but has since been replaced by the "New Nafta" the USMCA.

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North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) | U.S. Customs and Border Protection

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Information for U.S. Exporters is available through the Department of Commerce at: http://www.export.gov/FTA/index.asp

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As of right now the parents of over 500 migrant children are unable to be located. This could be due to the fact that they have been left at the border or have been separated by border control and are unable to identify who is related to who. The ACLU is looking into this and for good reason because this is a violation of human rights or could be categorized as abuse due to the damage to these children and parents.

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Parents of over 500 migrant children missing after border separation, ACLU says | ABC News

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Mental health effects on migrant children

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Mental health effects on migrant children

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Children must have parental interaction and nurturing during their developmental years. Separation of children from their families is damaging to their future development and mental health. This article discusses the damage of having families separated and the possible future effects on children. The crisis at the border needs to be remedied to stop this.

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Looking deeper into the crisis at the United States border, we see children taking some of the consequence of harsh border laws and nationalism. Many children are at the border being separated from their families or have no family to accompany them as a result of migrants trying to seek a better life for themselves and their children, or just their children. This is an issue that needs to be addressed immediately because it is damaging to mental health to be separated from their families.

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Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health

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Abstract

In recent years, unaccompanied minors have been journeying to the United States (U.S.)-Mexico border in great numbers in order to escape violence, poverty and exploitation in their home countries. Yet, unaccompanied children attempting to cross the United States border face treatment at the hands of government representatives which violates their inherent rights as children. The result is a human rights crisis that has severe health consequences for the children. Their rights as children are clearly delineated in various, international human rights documents which merit increased understanding of and recognition by the U.S. government. This paper calls for the improvement of policies and procedures for addressing the rights of unaccompanied immigrant children; it provides specific, rights-based recommendations which work together to safeguard the rights of the child at the U.S. southwestern border.

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Author information

Affiliations

1. Department of Community Health and Prevention, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Nesbitt Hall, 3215 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

Janna Ataiants, Amy Henderson Riley & Jamile Tellez Lieberman

2. Behavioral Sciences Training Program, Rory Meyers College of Nursing, New York University, 250 Park Avenue South, 6th Fl., New York, NY, 10003, USA

Janna Ataiants

3. Hepatitis B Foundation, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Chari Cohen

4. Health Federation of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Mary Clare Reidy

5. Department of Health Management and Policy, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Mariana Chilton

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Janna Ataiants.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

Janna Ataiants, Chari Cohen, Amy Henderson Riley, Jamile Tellez Lieberman, Mary Clare Reidy, and Mariana Chilton have declared that they have no conflict of interests.

Ethical Approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

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Cite this article

Ataiants, J., Cohen, C., Riley, A.H. et al. Unaccompanied Children at the United States Border, a Human Rights Crisis that can be Addressed with Policy Change. J Immigrant Minority Health 20, 1000-1010 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-017-0577-5
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Keywords

Unaccompanied Children

Human Rights Crisis

United States (U.S.)

Unaccompanied Minors

Voluntary Return

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Unaccompanied Children at the United States Border, a Human Rights Crisis that can be Addressed with Policy Change

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In recent years, unaccompanied minors have been journeying to the United States (U.S.)-Mexico border in great numbers in order to escape violence, poverty and exploitation in their home countries. Yet, unaccompanied children attempting to cross the United States border face treatment at the hands of government representatives which violates their inherent rights as children.

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This article dives into the catastrophic results of harsh border laws and lack of ease-of-access into the United States. Migrants are dying in the desert at the southern border and also are dying as a result of harsh treatment in detention centers. The unwelcoming attitudes and prosecution of apprehended migrants in the United States causes fear and a whole host of humanitarian issues that deserve attention.

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Deaths in the Desert: The Human Rights Crisis on the U.S.-Mexico Border

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Abstract. Many would acknowledge that immigration is a major issue in the United States and that immigration reform should be a priority. However, there is litt

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Hostility toward "aliens" and the negative impact of nationalistic attitudes in the US

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Hostility toward "aliens" and the negative impact of nationalistic attitudes in the US

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This article looks deeper into the border issues that we face in the United States and how the perceptions of citizens within the country are manipulated against asylum seekers and refugees. Nationalism is an issue that causes people to coalesce against foreign people entering the country because they see themselves as superior and that others who enter are at a lower status promoting more harsh laws and rhetoric toward migrants.

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Diaspora 6:2 1997 Nationalism and Immigration to the United States Ali Behdad1 University of California, Los Angeles Instead of noninterference and specialization, there must be interference , crossing of borders and obstacles, a determined attempt to generalize exactly at those points where generalizations seem impossible to make. -Said (157) American political scientists, sociologists, and immigrant rights advocates have often viewed the current anti-immigrant frenzy in the United States as a response to the country's economic condition. Echoing the economism of the restrictionists, they have argued that the present hostility toward "aliens" is an ephemeral and cyclical reaction to the nation's swelled unemployment rolls and economic slump. These observers cite the juxtaposition of periods of receptivity with periods of exclusion as empirical evidence-e.g., the "open door" era of 1776-1881 before the era of regulation of 1882-1924 or the post-World War II admission of political refugees prior to the 1954 "Operation Wetback," which sanctioned the mass deportation of Mexican farm workers. These and other historical cases are used to demonstrate the split pattern of welcoming immigrants when they are needed and turning against them when times are hard. The conventional liberal wisdom about the public reaction to immigration is, "When things are going well and there's a shortage of labor , people either look the other way or are actively supportive of bringing cheaper labor into the United States. But when jobs are tight, and the cost of supporting people goes up, then we suddenly redo the calculus."2 While such an economic view of anti-immigration consensus loosely corresponds to popular assumptions, it fails to address the role of immigration as both a necessary mechanism of social control in the formation of the state apparatus and an essential cultural contribution to the formation of national identity. In this article, I will argue that there has emerged around immigration in America a cultural discourse through which the nation imagines itself and a field of sociopolitical practices wherein and whereby the state exercises its disciplinary power. Located at the interstices of xxxxxxxxxxxx 155 Diaspora 6:2 1997 national consciousness and state apparatus, immigration makes the ambivalent concept of the "nation-state" imaginable in America: while the figure of the "alien" provides the differential signifier through which the nation defines itself as an autonomous community , the juridical and administrative regulations of immigration construe the collective sovereignty of the modern state. These polar forces of identification and regulation solidify an ambivalent form of national consciousness that bridges the split between the nation and the state with its cyclical history of tolerance and exclusion. I use the word "ambivalent," as opposed to "contradictory," to suggest a form of opposition that is not unified and does not maintain an undifferentiated state. Whereas "contradiction" implies an imaginary unity and the idea that opposite forms of consciousness arise out of each other to form a more inclusive totality, the notion of "ambivalence" suggests an irreconcilable and unending debate between competing notions of identity. To unpack the ambivalent structure of American nationalism, it is necessary to consider both the social history of "nativism" and the legal history of immigration law in the United States. Forgetful Founders and the Imagining of a Nation In the seventh of his papers, entitled "Examination of Jefferson's Message to Congress of December 7th, 1801," Alexander Hamilton, a West Indian by birth, wrote, The message of the President contains the following sentiments: "A denial of citizenship under a residence of fourteen years, is a denial to a great proportion of those who ask it,3 and controls a policy pursued from their first settlement, by many of these States, and still believed of consequence to their prosperity. And shall we refuse to the unhappy fugitives from distress, that hospitality which the savages of the wilderness extended to our fathers arriving in this land? Shall oppressed humanity find no asylum on this globe? Might not the general character and capabilities of a citizen, be safely communicated to every one manifesting a bona-fide purpose of embarking his life and fortune permanently with us?" (Grant and Davidson 45-7) Hamilton then comments, The pathetic and plaintive exclamations by which...

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Project MUSE - Nationalism and Immigration to the United States

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Diaspora 6:2 1997 Nationalism and Immigration to the United States Ali Behdad1 University of California, Los Angeles Instead of noninterference and specialization, there must be interference , crossing of borders and obstacles, a determined attempt to generalize exactly at those points where generalizations seem impossible to make.

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Michelle Brane discusses the crisis at the border of the United States. People are being turned away from the United States when they are seeking asylum from violence. Refugees are also being turned away. This causes undue harm to these people because they could easily be granted asylum or access to the country so that they are free from the dangerous conditions that they are fleeing.

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U.S. Immigration Policy and the Violation of Human Rights | Michelle Brané | TEDxBerkeley