The Rise of Xenophobic, Anti-Immigrant Policies in American and European Governments

On August 16, 2018, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued two resolutions granting precautionary measures to migrant children affected by the Trump administration’s recent family separation policy.[1] The IACHR acknowledged that the United States government is primarily responsible for “protecting the human rights of the persons under its jurisdiction”[2] due to the principle of complementarity. Nevertheless, the Commission felt that the resolutions were necessary because the separated children were at risk of losing their “rights to family life and personal integrity as well as the right to identity.”[3] In order to remedy this crisis, the IACHR asked the United States to put measures in place to protect these rights, guarantee the reunification of the separated families and children, and provide communication between the separated children and their families until they can be reunified. The Commission further requested that the administration halt the separation policy as well as any immigration policy that seeks to separate children from their families.