Rethinking the Age of Migrant Children

By Peggy Sands Orchowski

No words are more fraught with visceral emotion than "family" and "children". Washington DC columnist Meg Greenfield once wrote that "children are the Archilles heel of all powerful people". Any accusations of child abuse can bring down almost anyone no matter what their position. Children can be highly politicizing.

We're seeing that phenomenon now as suddenly, border enforcement is being framed as a child abuse issue. That's because as increasing numbers of migrant families cross over the border illegally and are arrested, their children are detained separately.  Advocates are calling the separation child abuse and worse.

But U.S. law does not allow children of arrested parents to be held in adult detention. Their children are sent to facilities operated by the Department of Health and Human Services. Babies and toddlers are cared for in special "tender age shelters".

Most children are detained less than 20 days until united with their families or foster caretakers.  Parents know that will happen when they choose to stay and seek asylum instead of agreeing to leave immediately with their families.

But the headlines everywhere read: "Children are being torn from the arms of their parents". Hysterical words like "inhumane", "cruel" "racist" "nazi" and "baby snatchers" increasingly are used. MSNBC's Joe Scarborough actually said "children were being "marched off to showers" -- referencing Nazi concentration camps.

"It's outrageous and harmful to our rule of law to malign law enforcement agents for simply doing their job Every immigration officer – most of whom are fathers and mothers themselves -- feels terrible when they have to separate a crying child from an arrested family member – citizen or migrant," said John Morton the Director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency at a National Press Club press briefing in May.  "But that's one of the consequences of being arrested for breaking our laws in the presence of children".

Perhaps it's the word "children" that is most problematic.  "Children" automatically evokes the image of small, innocent primary school-aged little ones, toddlers and infants.  

But in fact, the vast majority of "children" who are detained in immigration detention centers are teenage boys ages 16-18. Most came in unaccompanied, not with parents from whose arms they allegedly were torn. Many have had minimum schooling;  most have been working in menial jobs for years. There is not much in their lives that resemble U.S. childhood.

In fact the word "child" has many definitions.

Biologically a child is a human being between birth and puberty – about age 11.

The legal definition of child generally refers to a person younger than the "age of majority" -- the age where one is considered to be an adult -- between 18 and 21 depending on the state. In Canada and the U.S. children twelve and older can be held responsible for their actions.

Many religions have coming of age ceremonies like the Jewish bar mitzvah, at around age 14. In Central America it is 15 – the "quincinera".

Children age 14 are allowed to marry in the majority of U.S. states.

In most countries including the U.S., 14 year-olds can work legally.

In the US, obligatory schooling is until age 18.  In most of Europe it is 16.  In many countries including in Latin America, children must go to school until they are 14 or 15 years old

In US Immigration law, the term "child" means an unmarried person under twenty-one years of age.  We need to rethink that.

The thousands of teenagers surging over the borders illegally with and without family, know they are breaking U.S. laws. They are not innocent dependent little kids. They are of the age of responsibility, legally able to handle separate adjudication as adults.

Children under age 10 or 12 brought in illegally by a parent, used to be detained in family facilities. But the Obama administration closed down those facilities and ruled families could not be detained more than a short time – a rule that still holds today 

But crossing the border illegally with a "child" under the age of 18 or being an older teenager should not be a "go free" immigration card.  The Trump administration has made it clear that all illegal entries must be punished. Illegal immigrants do not have more rights than legal residents and citizens, including teenagers, to avoid detention.

The best solution would be if migrants from Central America were interviewed by U.S. officials regarding asylum, before they crossed the US. border illegally or attempted the long sometimes dangerous trip through Mexico with small children. That trip is the real example of child abuse.