Contextualizing (Children’s) Immigration in Law, History, Theory, and Politics

Few topics currently inspire more acrimony and reveal more division than what is often termed “the immigration debate.”2 Indeed, under the Trump Administration, the country has endured the longest government shutdown in American history largely owing to the inability of Congress to pass comprehensive and effective immigration reform.3 The problem is, in part, a result of how immigration has been framed by the Trump Administration.4 In a break from the recent past when Presidents since Kennedy characterized immigration as a net positive for the economy and an integral part of the nation’s heritage, and immigrants themselves as actual people deserving of a chance to realize the American Dream,5 President Trump has framed immigration as a major threat to our shared national interests and identity, and immigrants as something other than human.6 He infamously launched his presidential campaign by calling Mexican immigrants, rapists and criminals,7 and repeatedly promised a “big, beautiful” wall along the southern border.8 President Trump also continuously linked immigration to terrorism and called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”