Flashback: How Migrant Children Were Detained During President Trump’s First Term

During President Donald Trump’s first term, the mass detention of migrant children climbed to historic levels.

Kids Caught in the Crackdown, an Emmy-winning 2019 documentary investigating that trend, is now available on YouTube for the first time as part of an ongoing effort to make FRONTLINE’s multi-decade film archive widely available for streaming.

From FRONTLINE and The Associated Press, Kids Caught in the Crackdown examined conditions inside federally-funded shelter programs and the lasting impact on children held in U.S. government custody.

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Documentary

Kids Caught in the Crackdown

November 12, 2019

“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 said 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.”

“We tend to see teenagers as mini-adults,” said psychologist Yenys Castillo, who observed conditions inside one federally-funded shelter. “They’re not adults. They cannot regulate their emotions. They don’t think of the future as we do. They think, ‘This is going to last forever.’ The longer they stay in these detention conditions, the more they deteriorate psychologically.”

With unique access — including inside a “tender age” shelter that held some of the youngest children in the government’s custody — the film illuminated what happened when a child apprehended by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was handed over to the Department of Health and Human Services (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,” said Jonathan Hayes, then the director of HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is legally required to care for kids deemed “unaccompanied alien children.”

Produced and directed by Daffodil Altan and Andrés Cediel, co-produced by Sasha Joelle Achilli, and reported by Garance Burke and Martha Mendoza, the documentary looked at how changes in policy meant kids were being held in government custody for longer and longer periods, and in larger and larger numbers.

The film also explored the impact of being detained on young people’s developing psyches, including through the stories of the kids themselves.

“I’m still scared that something bad could happen,” a 16-year-old boy who had been detained told FRONTLINE and AP. “The way how I look at things has changed and like I don’t feel safe anymore.”