Different Perspectives on Migrant Detention

About This Mini Lesson

Over the last few years, controversy has surrounded the conditions in many of the detention facilities where migrants are being held along the United States’ southern border. The increased number of migrants arriving at the US–Mexico border—in combination with changes to US immigration policy that keep more migrants in detention while they wait for court dates—has led to overcrowding at many border detention facilities, which in turn has led to a surge of COVID-19 infections among people detained in these facilities. While conditions among facilities vary, advocates, government officials, and migrants have reported inhumane conditions in many detention centers.

This mini-lesson is designed to give students insight into migration and the systems surrounding migrant detention through different perspectives⁠—those of migrants who were detained, an immigration lawyer and advocate, a border guard, and an immigration judge. Examining this issue through different perspectives can help students gain important insight into the situation in detention centers and engage in ethical reflection about the treatment of migrants at the border. However, descriptions of the conditions in some facilities are disturbing, and it is important to review materials to determine if they are appropriate for your students.

Mini-Lesson Plan

Activity 1: How Do Migrants Experience Detention Centers?

Begin by asking students to reflect—individually or as a class—on what they already know about migration at the US–Mexico border and migrant detention and what emotions they feel about this topic. 

Then, ask your students to read the Texas Tribune article No Toothbrushes or Showers, Kids Coughing All Night: Migrants Describe Conditions inside Border Facilities. (Note: If you wish to shorten the article, you can stop reading before the paragraph that begins, “U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes Border Patrol, said it could not comment . . . ”)

Ask your students:

• What conditions do migrants describe seeing in different detention facilities?
• Did you learn anything that reinforced, extended, or challenged what you already knew about migrant detention? 

Activity 2: How Do Officials and Advocates Understand Their Responsibilities to Migrants?

In this activity, students learn about migration and migrant detention centers along the US–Mexico border through three different perspectives:

• An immigration lawyer and advocate: Hope Frye's Testimony on Child Migrant Detention 
• A border guard: A Border Patrol Agent Reveals What It’s Really Like to Guard Migrant Children 
• An immigration judge: The Gut-Wrenching Life of an Immigration Judge: Column 

Place students into three groups, and give each group a different perspective to read. Ask students to draw a Character Map for the person they are focusing on. Students can draw the character map on their own piece of paper or on the Character Map handout. They should draw an outline of a person and answer the following questions as a group next to their drawings:

• Head: How does the person in your article think about their professional responsibilities?
• Mouth: What does this person say about their job? Why do they say about immigration?
• Heart: How do you think this person feels about their job? What ethical dilemmas do they face at work?
• Hands: What actions have they taken or do they want to take when it comes to immigration?
• Feet: What options might this person have to make sure migrants are being treated humanely? What are they choosing to do?

After students finish their character maps, ask them to form new groups with at least one person who read each piece. Students should use their character maps to introduce their article and discuss it with their new group.
End with an individual reflection. Students can respond in their journals, using the following questions as a guide:

• What emotions did reading or hearing these different perspectives raise for you?
• What do you think about the ethics of migration and migrant detention after reading or hearing these different perspectives?
• What can you do to help ensure that migrants are treated humanely, at the border and in your own community?