Portside

“This is a war against normal life.” So said CNN correspondent Clarissa Ward, describing the situation at this moment in Syria, as well as in other parts of the Middle East.

About 40 mothers being held at the privately-run Karnes Family Detention Center in southern Texas launched a hunger strike this week to demand their release and the release of their families, vowing on Tuesday not to eat, work, or use the services at the facility until they are freed. Some 80 Central American women held at the center have signed a letter stating they were refused bond despite having established a credible fear of violence if they are deported.

In an escalating dispute with President Obama, Republican in the United States House of Representatives passed a bill to cut any funding to the Department of Homeland Security for suspending the deportation of undocumented people. This bill rescinds Obama's 2014 orders for DHS to defer the deportation of undocumented immigrants with US-born children (who are US citizens) as well as suspend the deportation of undocumented young people brought to US as children.

In an attempt to help fill the knowledge gap, the American Immigration Council is releasing a study today that was conducted by Elizabeth Kennedy, a Fulbright Fellow currently doing research in El Salvador on child and youth migrants returned from Mexico and the United States. This report sheds light on some of the structural conditions that compel minors to migrate to the United States or other countries in the region.