Dozens of Ukrainian children have been separated from relatives, friends or older siblings with whom they have traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border under a law designed to prevent migrant children from being trafficked, reports Miriam Jordan in the New York Times.
“The brunt of the law has been felt by Central American children, the largest group of minors to reach the border in recent years and who are often fleeing gang violence,” writes Jordan. But those children “typically are aware of the policy and know that they will be taken into temporary custody. For Ukrainian children, the separation from their caretakers has been an unexpected, shocking twist in their escape from a war zone.”
Jordan reports that the separations are different from those in 2018, “when the Trump administration intentionally removed children from migrant parents to discourage border crossings; the punitive measure also resulted in children being sent to government shelters.” (click here for full story).
A recent episode of NPR’s “State of Ukraine” podcast also examined the separation of Ukrainian children at the border from family members who are not their parents (https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510366/state-of-ukraine).
The Immigration and Refugee News Digest 