The Power to Exclude: The (Mis)Treatment of Unaccompanied Minors under the Trump and Biden Administration

Abstract

In “The Biden Plan for Securing Our Values as a Nation of Immigrants” (hereinafter “Biden Plan“), then-candidate Joe Biden promised to “reassert America’s commitment to asylum-seekers and refugees.” Three years into his presidency, how far has the Biden Administration come in their efforts to create a more humane asylum system? And has the treatment of unaccompanied minors seen any significant improvements? This article examines the Trump Administration’s attempts to permanently alter the US asylum system. After trying to categorically ban all claims that were based on persecution by “private actors,” the Trump Administration seized on the COVID-19 pandemic as a convenient pretext for taking away even some of the most basic human rights protections that asylum-seekers have enjoyed for generations. This article will argue that the Biden Administration, despite their efforts to restore some basic protections, continues to criminalize and institutionalize many unaccompanied minors.