New York Times: Migrant Children Tent Camp

Harsh new policies have increased the numbers of migrant children in US government care – a record number of more than 13,000 migrant children, some separated from their parents at the border but many unaccompanied minors who traveled to the country on their own. Immigration officials have started relocating the children from shelters and homes around the country with education and safety requirements to a large tent city in the Texas desert with fewer standards: “in the rows of sand-colored tents in Tornillo, Tex., children in groups of 20, separated by gender, sleep lined up in bunks,” reports Caitlin Dickerson for the New York Times. “There is no school: The children are given workbooks that they have no obligation to complete. Access to legal services is limited.” The transfers are traumatic with little warning so children do not try to escape. The stays in the tent cities are supposed to be temporary but could last for months with a slowdown in court reviews. Migrants travel to the United States with dreams of improving their lives, and the Trump administration, intent on controlling immigration, is creating resentment that could linger for years to come. - YaleGlobal