Family Separation at the U.S./Mexico Border

In March 2018, a migrant from Brazil was separated from her son at a port of entry. Reflecting on the moment of separation, she describes that “I died at that moment.” (Amnesty International, 2018). The first Trump Administration’s “zero tolerance policy”, initiated in 2017, resulted in a rising number of forced separations of families at the United States’ (U.S.) southern border (Baker & McKinney Timm, 2021). The American Bar Association estimates that, between mid-April and June of 2018, over 2,000 children were separated from their parents at the border (Family Separation and Detention, n.d.).

As a means to deter unlawful immigration, under the “zero tolerance policy”, children are taken from their parents at the border, after which the government often refuses to disclose the children’s whereabouts or well-being. Such a separation can be classified as an enforced disappearance, a crime under international law (US: Lasting Harm from Family Separation at the Border, n.d.). Nearly 30% of children separated under Trump’s first administration remain unaccounted for, roughly 1,360 (US: Lasting Harm from Family Separation at the Border, n.d.).

Once separated – often under the pretense of receiving a “bath” (Domonoske & Gonzales, 2018) – children are taken to Customs and Border Control facilities, child immigrant shelters, tent camps, or are put in the care of sponsors. Chaotic reunion with parents occurs only once they are released from detention (Domonoske & Gonzales, 2018).

The U.S. harsh family separation policies fundamentally run counter to domestic and international law, which prohibit deliberate separation of children from families as a means to deter unlawful immigration (Cordero et al., 2020). The U.S. has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which, in Article 23, outlines that the family, as a fundamental unit of society, is entitled to the protection of the state and ensures a right to family life, in Article 17 (Cordero et al., 2020).

What is the result, then, of family separation at the border? Not only are there legal implications, but family separations had deep psychological impacts on children and parents. Babies as young as one or two years old are separated from their parents, who are unable to contact their children (Family Separation, 2017). Separation also increases migrant vulnerability who, aware that they may be separated at a port of entry, would seek alternatives to border crossings, notably smugglers (Family Separation, 2017).

Shaina Simenas, the Co-Director of the Technical Assistance Program at the Young Center for Immigrant Social Rights, describes that “ICE [takes] better care of remembering where they left people’s belongings than where they had placed immigrant children.” (American Immigration Council Staff, 2025). Effectively, the U.S. border control weighs suppression of migrants over children’s rights. With the current sweeping crackdowns on immigration in the U.S. (Alvarez, 2025), the future of migrant children hangs in the balance.

Works Cited

• Alvarez, P. (2025, June 4). Trump administration takes hundreds of migrant children out of their homes, into government custody. CNN Politics.
• American Immigration Council Staff. (2025). The Impact of Family Separation on Children. American Immigration Council.
• Amnesty International. (2018, June 29). USA: Authorities must stop separating and locking up families. Amnesty International.
• Baker, J. R., & McKinney Timm, A. (2021). Zero Tolerance: The Trump Administration's Human Rights Violations Against Migrants on the Southern Border.
• Cordero, C. F., Feldman, H. L., & Keitner, C. I. (2020). The Law Against Family Separation. Columbia Human Rights Law Review.
• Domonoske, C., & Gonzales, R. (2018, June 19). What We Know: Family Separation And “Zero Tolerance” At The Border. National Public Radio.
• Family Separation. (2017, December 22). Women’s Refugee Commission.
• Family Separation and Detention. (n.d.).
• US: Lasting Harm from Family Separation at the Border. (n.d.). Human Rights Watch.