Washington, DC — Recent days have highlighted in disturbing detail how Donald Trump and Stephen Miller’s mass deportation and mass detention agenda inflicts outsized harm and cruelty on children, mothers, and families. From relentlessly targeting five year old Liam Ramos to deporting two-month old Juan Nicolás hours after being released from a hospital, the public is seeing more devastating examples inflicted by mass deportation. This is precisely why there is growing backlash against President Trump and Stephen Miller’s anti-immigration obsessions.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“The vile inhumanity on display is chilling. Targeting infants and pre-schoolers has nothing to do with immigration enforcement and everything to do with perpetuating a campaign of terror to instill fear in the hearts of immigrants and citizens alike. These loathsome actions are completely disconnected from our values as a country and what American voters want. We are better than this.”
Among the recent reminders of the trauma and harms of mass deportation inflicted on children and families include:
- People, “2-Month-Old Reportedly Suffering from Bronchitis Deported to Mexico After Weeks at Texas Detention Center,” noting, “Castro said on X Juan Nicolás was discharged from the hospital Monday night, despite being “unresponsive” at times during the day. In that same update, Castro said that early Tuesday, Juan Nicolás’ mother was before an immigration judge, who told her “she will be deported, but was not told when or where.” In a Monday Instagram video, Castro said that Juan Nicolás had been at Dilley for about three to three and a half weeks. He said at one point, there was no doctor for Juan Nicolás to see in the early morning hours, and that the child’s “life is in danger.””
- The New York Times, “‘I Just Want to Get Out of Here’: ICE Is Detaining Hundreds of Children,” noting, “The detention center is surrounded by barbed wire, and most families sleep in rooms shared with other families. Children often lose weight and get sick. Recently, there were two confirmed cases of measles. Some children have become suicidal and had panic attacks, families and lawyers say. “There is a lot of desperation,” said Javier Hidalgo, a legal director with RAICES, who has visited the facility many times. Christian Rubi, 16, said in a phone interview from Dilley that he has “a lot of anxiety attacks.”
- Politico “Judges decry treatment of nursing and pregnant detainees in ICE custody,” noting, “Federal judges are sounding alarms about the Trump administration’s treatment of pregnant and nursing detainees in ICE custody — and the administration has given the courts conflicting, unclear answers about whether it is following its own policies that sharply restrict those detentions. Against that uncertainty, courts are being confronted with harrowing stories about women being separated from their nursing infants or housed in cramped and ill-equipped ICE facilities while pregnant, in conditions that threaten their health and have, in some cases, been followed by miscarriages”
- The Bulwark column from Adrian Carrasquillo, “The Kids Aren’t Alright in Dilley,” writes, “Liam Ramos was the tip of the iceberg. Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the facility from which 5-year-old Liam and his father were discharged on February 1, is a place where many other children are still being detained. Their stories are almost too much to bear … A former Dilley employee who served in the U.S. armed forces spoke to me—on condition of anonymity—about what they witnessed inside the facility … ‘They’re treated like they’re criminals, but most of them have done it the right way—they were picked up at their court appointments,’ the source added. ‘People complain that they’re doing it the ‘wrong way,’ but when they do it the right way, you detain and deport them, so it’s a lose-lose situation … They’re locked in there sad and depressed.'”
- Newsweek op-ed by Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR): “Congresswoman: Immigration Enforcement Is Turning Schools into Places of Fear,” noting, “School leaders from urban, suburban and rural communities across Northwest Oregon describe the same reality: Fear is disrupting education. Students are missing school to care for younger siblings after a parent is detained. High-achieving students are falling behind, not because they lack ability, but because trauma makes learning impossible. Field trips are canceled. Families are afraid to walk their children to school, seek food assistance, or ask for language support because they are worried that visibility could put them at risk.”
