In December, the North America Congress on Latin America (NACLA: nacla.org) distributed its online magazine with the heading ‘The Best of NACLA from 2024’ in which they gave short summaries of a few of their major 2024 reports. One of these was entitled ‘Family Separations and Deportations’ which are issues that The Violence of Development (TVOD) website has focussed on over the last few years. The summary includes several links which may be of interest to our readers. Obviously, we would also urge all our readers to follow NACLA which gives an incisive analysis on matters Latin American. The issue of migration through Central America to the US southern border is of course of particular concern to The Violence of Development website.
NACLA summary report for Nov/Dec 2024
FAMILY SEPARATIONS AND DEPORTATIONS
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents still routinely separate children from adult relatives during their custody, according to a final report submitted by a court-ordered monitor tasked with overseeing conditions in U.S. border facilities. Though this most recent report noted small improvements in the treatment of minors, the court-mandated oversight of children—a staple of decades of U.S. immigration law—will partially come to an end in early January as a result of the Biden administration’s repeated demands for its termination. Advocates for child migrants have opposed the administration’s request. Also this week, Human Rights Watch reported that as many as 1,360 children “have never been reunited with their parents” six years after former president Donald Trump implemented his “Zero Tolerance” child separation policy.
In related news, ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] has deported a mother and her four children, including newborn twins who were born in the United States. Christina Salazar was detained on December 11 after missing an immigration hearing due to complications from a recent cesarean section, even though she had informed the court of the health issue and had been told the hearing would be rescheduled. Just months after giving birth, Salazar and her children were deported to a town in Mexico where they have no connections.