Examining Family Separation Through Narratives of Family, Migration, and Separation Among Deported Mexican-U.S. Family Members

Family separation entered the U.S. political mainstream in the spring of 2018 when the Trump administration began separating thousands of migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border. While this policy is the first of its kind to deliberately use family separation as immigration enforcement in contemporary U.S. history, the U.S. has a much more extensive history of separating families, especially Mexican-U.S. families, through deportation. This research examines how deportation-induced family separation of Mexican-U.S. family members impacts familial relationships, as told through the narratives of deported family members in Mexico. These narratives suggest that family can be a broad and dynamic community that often includes people outside one’s biological or adopted family network. They also present a conception of family through the lens of mutually supportive relationships and shared experiences with family members. The narratives suggest that the physical aspects of family separation inhibit one’s ability to fully serve one’s familial role of support and to share experiences with one’s family members. For these reasons, family separation often stagnates or deteriorates familial relationships. Transnational and national policy reform can end family separation in the U.S. and Mexico, reunite families that have been separated, and allow the U.S. to come to terms with its past of family separation and address the victims of separation.