Violence against unaccompanied and separated children in Immigration detention

• In Event: Aperturas emancipatorias frente a las violencias en/desde América Latina

Abstract

The numbers of unaccompanied children detained in the United States has increased exponentially from about 8000 a year in 2010 to over 60,000 within a few months in 2014.
The majority of these unaccompanied or separated children consistently report experiencing violence. After ICE, under the DOH Department of Homeland Security, apprehends the children they are placed in the frontera hielera detention centers then transferred to the care of Office of Refugee Resettlement. Once children are placed in ORR detention centers throughout the United where they await reunification to their caregivers in the US and being the process of deportation.
It is important to analyze the process the children undergo and the violence being reported by children during their detention because after children are apprehended by the department of immigration they are detained in a state of legal limbo with no right to legal representation and no one identified as an actor in the best interest of the child.

Author

• Maricelly Malave, Universidad Para la Paz, Costa Rica