Frederica Freyberg:

There has been a jump in the number of unaccompanied children seeking entry into the U.S. from its southern border with Mexico, with more than 16,000 minors reported in federal custody. President Biden this week tasked Vice President Kamala Harris with addressing the root causes that prompt migrating people to leave their home countries. The director of the Immigrant Justice Clinic at the UW-Madison Law School is an expert on the issue. Erin Barbato joins us now and thanks very much for being here again.

Erin Barbato:

Thank you so much for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what is your reaction to the influx of people seeking entry at the southern border, especially this number of children?

Erin Barbato:

You know, my reaction is it’s heart-breaking and it’s heart-breaking to see how this has become such a politicized issue, especially when we’re speaking about children. These are children that we are permitting to enter our country to seek refuge here and people are — they’re being demonized even though they are children for their actions.

Frederica Freyberg:

From what you understand, what are the conditions for these children?

Erin Barbato:

The conditions in the United States for where they’re being processed, you know, they’re not a standard that you would want any child to be in. There’s a large number of children that are arriving and we don’t have the capacity to hold them or provide shelter for them before they’re being reunited with family or friends or in a foster care in the United States. And the pandemic has made it that much more difficult because of the conditions that we need to have social distancing in there as well.

Frederica Freyberg:

Yeah. In fact, I’ve now read that hundreds of the children have tested positive for COVID-19. How critical is this situation and can it become?

Erin Barbato:

You know, it’s obviously very dangerous. The process — I mean these children are already fleeing something that have made them leave their families, their friends, their homes to come into a situation where they are again not necessarily safe. I think the administration is working really hard to correct the situation, but it’s incredibly difficult.

Frederica Freyberg:

Is the U.S. doing enough to house and care for them in an adequate manner?

Erin Barbato:

At this point, I don’t think so. But that being said, I think there’s an effort to provide safe housing and shelter to these children. But it’s going to take some time. And they’re not going to stop arriving at our border until things are better in their home countries.

Frederica Freyberg:

Well, have there been policy shifts under the new administration that are either helping or hurting this situation?

Erin Barbato:

Well, I think that’s hard to say what is helping or hurting the situation. The situation hasn’t changed in their countries in particularly the northern triangle of Central American. It’s only gotten more difficult for people to survive there due to recent natural disasters as well as the political environment and the controlling gangs there. So whether — President Biden changed one policy, but it’s a law. The law that allows unaccompanied minors to enter the country to seek refuge. President Trump had barred children from doing that even prior to the pandemic. When we look at the numbers that are coming, the prior administration attempted to deter people from coming and really what they did is just delay it and that’s what we’re seeing now.

Frederica Freyberg:

Kamala Harris, as we said, will become the point person to address the root causes of why so many people and children are leaving their home countries. What in your mind, and this is a big global question, but what needs to be done?

Erin Barbato:

We need to start treating people seeking refuge with humanity and also following our laws. We have had such aggressive deterrence over the past four years that people have died, people have hurt, people — we’re not following our humanitarian policies in order to provide protection to people in the world, especially to children. It’s incredibly complicated. We can’t deny that. We are also an incredibly wealthy country that has the resources to treat children and people seeking refuge with much more humane policies.

Frederica Freyberg:

Is there something, briefly with about a half a minute left that needs to be done in their countries of origin that the U.S. can accomplish?

Erin Barbato:

Well, the Obama administration had started to provide systems and support to combat some of these push factors sending people to the United States, but those went away under the Trump administration. The Biden administration is attempting to create more policies that will make things better for people in those countries and then they won’t have to seek and flee for refuge in the United States.

Frederica Freyberg:

We leave is there. Erin Barbato, thank you very much.

Erin Barbato:

Thank you so much for having me.