FRONTLINE and The Associated Press Investigate the Trump Administration’s Record-Breaking Mass Detention of Migrant Children

Also in FRONTLINE’s Nov. 12 Hour, a Separate Report on the Sexual Exploitation of Women & Girls in Iraq

Kids Caught in the Crackdown & Iraq’s Secret Sex Trade Tues., Nov. 12, 2019, at 10/9c on PBS and online www.facebook.com/frontline | Twitter: @frontlinepbs Instagram: @frontlinepbs | YouTube: youtube.com/frontline

Detention of migrant children has climbed to record levels under President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, Nov. 12, a new joint investigation from FRONTLINE and The Associated Press called Kids Caught in the Crackdown will examine conditions inside the growing network of federally-funded shelter programs and the lasting impact on children held in U.S. government custody.

The film draws on confidential government data obtained by The Associated Press that shows how many migrant kids are being held — and where — at any given time.

“What we found in our reporting is that never before had there been this many children held inside the government’s network of shelters for migrant kids,” AP investigative reporter Garance Burke says in the documentary. “The majority of those kids were in facilities with more than 100 or 1,000 other children, so mass facilities where psychiatrists say kids start to feel like just another number.”

Kids Caught in the Crackdown is part of a new collaboration between FRONTLINE and The Associated Press that also includes jointly published stories and video. With unique access — including inside a “tender age” shelter that holds some of the youngest children in the government’s custody — the film illuminates what happens when a child apprehended by Customs and Border Protection is handed over to the Department of Health and Human Services, known as HHS.

“With very high numbers of children coming across the border at times, HHS has to be able to meet its responsibility, both legally and morally, to have a place for these children to go,” says Jonathan Hayes, the director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is legally required to care for migrant children within HHS.

Produced and directed by FRONTLINE’s Daffodil Altan and Andrés Cediel, co-produced by Sasha Joelle Achilli, and reported by AP’s Garance Burke and Martha Mendoza, the documentary examines how changes in policies for how sponsors are vetted — including an alliance between HHS and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — meant kids were held in government custody for longer and longer periods, and in larger and larger numbers.

“There is a total chilling effect of coming forward,” Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, a former deputy assistant director of ICE, tells FRONTLINE and the AP. “People are not willing to come forward because they believe they are going to be picked up by ICE.”

And finally, the film explores the impact of being detained on young people’s developing psyches: “I’m still scared that something bad could happen… the way how I look at things has changed and like I don’t feel safe anymore,” a 16-year-old boy tells FRONTLINE and AP.

Kids Caught in the Crackdown is the first segment in FRONTLINE’s Nov. 12 multi-part hour, which also includes a report on the sexual exploitation of women and girls in Iraq.

In that second segment, Iraq’s Secret Sex Trade, BBC News Arabic’s Nawal al-Maghafi reports from inside Iraq, where she investigates how some clerics are abusing an ancient Islamic marriage practice to exploit women and girls.

With undercover reporting, the documentary exposes clerics offering to perform what’s known as muta’ah or munqata’a — pleasure or temporary marriages — with girls as young as 13 in exchange for money.

The documentary also shows clerics essentially acting as pimps, and offers the chilling accounts of young women who say they were exploited and forced into repeated “pleasure marriages.”

 

“When a girl starts, she’s destroyed,” one such girl, who is now 16, tells FRONTLINE. “Her life ends the first day she takes this road.”

Kids Caught in the Crackdown and Iraq’s Secret Sex Trade premiere Tuesday, Nov. 12 at 10 p.m. E.S.T/9 p.m. C.S.T. Tune in or stream on PBS (check local listings), at pbs.org/frontline or on the PBS Video App

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Credits

Kids Caught in the Crackdown is a FRONTLINE Production with Five O’Clock Films in partnership with The Associated Press. The writers, producers and directors are Daffodil Altan and Andrés Cediel. The co-producer is Sasha Joelle Achilli. The reporters are Garance Burke and Martha Mendoza. The correspondent is Daffodil Altan. The senior producer is Frank Koughan. The international investigations editor for AP is Ron Nixon. The executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.

Iraq’s Secret Sex Trade is a FRONTLINE and BBC News Arabic Production. The correspondent is Nawal al-Maghafi. The producers are Mais Albayaa, Nawal al-Maghafi and Patrick Wells. The director is Patrick Wells. The executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.

About FRONTLINE FRONTLINE, U.S. television’s longest running investigative documentary series, explores the issues of our times through powerful storytelling. FRONTLINE has won every major journalism and broadcasting award, including 91 Emmy Awards and 22 Peabody Awards. Visit pbs.org/frontline and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr and Google+ to learn more. FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Ford Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation, the Park Foundation, the John and Helen Glessner Family Trust, and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation.

About AP The Associated Press is the essential global news network, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats. Founded in 1846, AP today is the most trusted source of independent news and information. On any given day, more than half the world’s population sees news from AP. On the web: www.ap.org. 

Press Contacts: frontlinemedia@wgbh.org, 617.300.5312

Lauren Easton Director of Media Relations The Associated Press 212-621-7005 leaston@ap.org