The Perennial Weaponization of Childhood
The 2018 'zero tolerance' policy, which saw thousands of children — some still infants — ripped from their parents by US Customs and Border Protection, was presented by mainstream outlets as a harsh but necessary measure to enforce immigration law. Footage of children in cages and the 'tender age' shelters sparked outrage, yet the underlying mechanisms and historical precedents were largely absent
from the narrative. This cruelty is no aberration. The US government, from the 19th-century forced removal of Indigenous children to boarding schools to the internment of Japanese American families during World War II, has consistently utilized family separation as a tool of social control and psychological warfare. In the early 2000s, families from Central America fleeing US-backed violence were
frequently separated, with children often placed in facilities run by private contractors who reap billions. Records show that between 2003 and 2008 alone, around 5,000 children were separated from their parents, a practice that continued quietly for years before erupting publicly a decade later. The current framing as a 'border crisis' obscures the cyclical nature of this policy, which
consistently targets vulnerable populations fleeing conditions often exacerbated by US foreign policy. When the US government deploys such tactics, it sends a clear message: the cost of seeking refuge, or even simply a better life, includes the potential dissolution of your family unit. The outrage, however genuine, often fades while the underlying, profitable infrastructure of detention and