What kind of kid am I?
Susan J. Terrio's sociological work, The Homeless and Unattended Young Child in Immigration Department in the United States, offers a profound understanding of the institutional violence perpetrated against young migrants held in federal custody. The author of the roughly 280-page book focuses her attention on four central characters, including Maribel, who escaped to the United States as an adolescent after her alcoholic father attempted to kill her with a machete. Ernesto is another character who was compelled to move up north in quest of better grazing land and to escape his stepfather's brutal beatings. Corina, the youngest of a large Guatemalan family, ran away due to fear of her personal safety after constantly witnessing her sisters suffered all kinds of domestic abuse. While on the other hand, Abraham, a transgender youth was forced to scamper for safety since he came from a Mexican region where he risked extreme persecution even from his immediate family since this type of sexual orientation (faggot) was viewed as a taboo.
Increased migration of unaccompanied children
It is because of this that kids like Abraham, Corina, Maribel, and Ernesto saw journeying to America unaccompanied as the next best option towards building and sustaining a more stable and fruitful life. Despite the fact that these minor migrants had undoubtedly hoped to attain freedom for various elements of domestic abuse, societal prejudice, gang violence and brutality that accrued from extreme poverty. Through study and hard in a bid to realize their full potential, the American task force assumed that the children were out in search for a soft life within the country's easy street due to the increased number of American taxpayers.
The breaking news and the fight for opportunities
It was not until 2014, when the vulnerable population ignored in immigration debates became breaking news with media circulation with intensely shocking pictures of kids held in jail-like detention centers. Media reports went further to project that the number of children apprehended at the southwestern border rapidly rose from October 2013 and by July 2014, the number exceeded 57,000. It is because of this that the minor migrants were forced to fight for the available opportunities. By traveling unaccompanied, children became easy prey for the likes of traffickers, drug cartels, among other exploiters as they were forced to cling on cargo trains, hike jungles, and blazing deserts to reach their destination. It was followed by a series of extended detention upon their arrival on, "the other side."
Ethnographic study and historical research
Owing to the rich ethnographic picture projected after more than two years field work and detailed historical research. Intensive participant observation which includes attending some separate immigration court proceeding, as well as visiting at least 19 out of the 39 detention facilities where the unaccompanied minors were held. It is evident that the writer seeks to provide a detailed description of how the migrant children got their way into the country's federal custody system. In a bid to achieve this, the author focuses on the diverse views of federal officials, judges as well as the immigration attorney. By doing this, writer Susan Terrio can provide her esteemed readers with a flamboyant representation of the activities within the complicated system of the immigration enforcement as managed by the United State's Department of Homeland Security.
Exposing institutional violence
By focusing on the lives of the desperate youths, were mostly motivated to travel through the traumatic passage of the North through to the United States. The place where they were detained and ultimately deported or released to start and build a new life for themselves, the writer can openly and confidently expose the many shadows of injustice that take shape within the juvenile custodial system. These injustices according to the writer have for a long time escaped the critical scrutiny of the public eye. As a result, crime rise is mainly due to the increased overlap and different layers of bureaucracy created within the system. Therefore, due to this, the writer has been able openly to outline a detailed and comprehensive story of how the United States ventured into the business of unlawfully, holding unaccompanied undocumented migrate children against their will. It is respective of the lack of separate and adequate provision for the minors as indicated within the country's draconian immigration laws.
Lack of proper treatment and growing isolation
It is at this that it is possibly argued that the contents of the story are not only compelling but also timely in exposing the many institutional violence, suffered by the minor immigrants while detained at the federal custody below two conflicting target. There tends to be compulsory confinement within custodial capabilities and the scheduled removal within colonization courtyard. It is because of the conflicting schedules that the minors continued to be under strings of confinement. Because of her heightened sense of compassionate consideration of the general needs of a child. It is, therefore, evident that the ideal purpose of this particular story is to identify some of the best interests of a child that can be included in the current law with a clear emphasis that borders on the element of security and enforcement of the child's general needs and concerns. Further, by focusing on the various views and perceptions of her numerous informants, it is evident that a very bleak picture continues to hover around the lives of the minor migrants in federal custody despite the fact that they were overwhelmed with an increased feeling of anxiety and a sense of powerlessness. For example in the book, Maribel vividly states, "so they took us to a shelter in Texas. at first, I thought it wasn't like a jail, but then I saw that we couldn't leave. Everybody there had depression; the girls were always crying. Life stopped in there; life was ended. There was no life because all we could see was the fence and the electric cable. I said 'I am not like a criminal."
Consequences and immigration changes
It is as a result of these types of treatment and growing isolation that some kids with impeccable characters snapped, thus becoming troublemakers and prime candidates for deportation, while other opted for voluntary removal in a bid to avoid this tortuous process.
Unaccompanied migrant children and the U.S. immigration law
In short, it is evident that the book has vividly demonstrated that the unaccompanied migrant children were treated like adults and essentially criminalized for the civil offense of undocumented entry under the U.S. immigration law. It, as a result, limited the immigration judge's ability to rule in the best interest of the children in question. At this, it can be argued that the research contents within the book were developed to help create adequate awareness for which various institutions such as the Obama administration can develop a series of executive actions on immigration under which the unjust and inhumane situation of minor migrant detainment can be adequately addressed. By this, it can be argued that "Whose Child Am I" elaborates in more details of the essential of immigration changes for various reasons.
Reference
Terrio, J. Susan. Whose child am I? Unaccompanied, Undocumented Children in U.S. Immigration Custody. University of California Press, 2015.
