Hi, everyone, and welcome to Friday. Our team is grateful to be inching toward spring and ready to say goodbye forever to this pandemic winter (at least in the Northern Hemisphere). We hope it's sunny wherever you are. |
This week in the newsletter, we're following up on Monday's episode to take a closer look at the emotional toll of the United States' recent border policies. Then, our producer shares how she found our guest from Wednesday, Officer Harry Dunn of the U.S. Capitol Police. |
Let us know what episode stood out to you this week — our team would love to hear from you. |
Behind the statistics in Monday's episode |
 | | This undated drawing depicting one child's perception of government detention was created by a migrant child at the Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, Texas.American Academy of Pediatrics, via Associated Press |
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Few words were as evocative during the Trump era as "family separation." The policy, aggressively pushed by President Trump and his top aides in 2018, was one part of a zero-tolerance approach to immigration enforcement that separated nearly 3,000 migrant children from adults. |
So when Joe Biden ran for the presidency, he had an easy promise to make: If elected, he would treat migrants with compassion and provide them the opportunity to request protection in the United States. But, as we described in our episode on Monday, actually delivering on that promise requires reforming a knotty and complicated system that predates the Trump administration. |
"Biden's intent to create a more humane approach" to the United States' border policy, reporter Zolan Kanno-Youngs said, "is bumping up against all kinds of challenges that are making it difficult to not recreate the same problems of Trump and Obama." |
The perception of a friendlier stance on migration has led to a surge in attempted border crossings — including thousands of families as well as unaccompanied children. In January, Border Patrol agents caught nearly 6,000 unaccompanied children crossing the border, and many are now being confined in government shelters. Families and unaccompanied children are still being processed through a system that is stretched beyond capacity, and short-term crisis response at the border is complicating the administration's attempts at structural reform. |
While we discussed these statistics in the show, we wanted to offer some context on the emotional toll of extended detention for children, both those who have been separated from their families and those who arrive unaccompanied. So we reached out to organizations working to place migrant children in shelters, and they shared with us some art produced by children who have been detained over the last few years. We selected a diary entry, a drawing and a poem that reveal how two children — one young girl and one teenage boy — have perceived the passing of time during their detention. |
Take a look below, then listen to our episode to hear Zolan detail how the Biden administration is addressing the current crisis. |
| LISTEN TO MONDAY'S EPISODE: | | |
In this diary entry, a seven-year-old girl counted the number of days she remained separated from her family while she was in immigration custody in 2018. She was reunited with her father after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to reunite some separated families. Unlike some parents, her father, Daniel Paz, was still in the country when the court order was issued, allowing the government to reunite him with his daughter before he could be deported back to Honduras. |
 | | Courtesy of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project |
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'Melting into an hourglass' |
In this drawing and poem, David, a teenager from Central America, depicts his experience longing for his family while spending 671 days in federal custody, first in Illinois and later in Virginia. According to the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights, David was recently released and reunited with his sister, who also entered the country as an unaccompanied child. He is now concurrently seeking asylum and special immigrant juvenile status. |
 | | Courtesy of the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights |
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An excerpt from David's poem titled, "Te Amo": |
"I only want to be with you and forget about the past |
Thank you for the care you have given me |
And for your heart and your love that you have given me |
I only want to fall apart with you |
When I think of you, even my heart falls asleep |
I just pass the time thinking that you and I are hugging |
We're melting into an hourglass" |
How we found Officer Harry Dunn |
 | | "It was a traumatic, traumatic historical event," Officer Harry Dunn of the Capitol Police said of the attack on Jan. 6.Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times |
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When our producer Jessica Cheung saw a video of Eugene Goodman, a Black Capitol Police officer, fending off rioters inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, she knew she wanted to talk to an officer who had been on the front lines. |
"I was particularly interested in hearing from a Black officer, given the Confederate flags and white supremacist symbols we were seeing on the Hill that day," Jessica said. So, she set out to find police officers who were willing to talk openly about their experiences. She contacted officers, but none were quite ready or willing to share their stories. She had heard from others that they were forbidden to speak with the press and that they feared retaliation from their employers. And, in fact, the Capitol Police press office said officers would not be granting interviews at this time. But after multiple tries, Jessica found Officer Harry Dunn. |
"It was about a week after the riots that I reached Officer Dunn," Jessica said. "He sounded pretty shaken up as he recounted his experience being called the N-word multiple times by rioters, fighting against them while being punched at and pepper sprayed with his eyes closed. I knew when I got off the phone with him that his was the story people needed to hear." |
But getting him on the show wasn't easy. |
He had already shared his story anonymously with another publication but feared retaliation if he were to go on the record. Jessica went back and forth with the standards team, which advises newsroom reporters and editors on ethics, fairness and style for our journalism, trying to work out how we could get him on the show. She wondered whether The Times could offer him anonymity. Perhaps we could alter his voice on The Daily? Ultimately, he decided against it. But she didn't let up. |
Jessica called Officer Dunn every couple of weeks to check in on him. Then, finally, after the Capitol Police changed its policy on officers speaking to the press, he agreed to go on the record with The Times. He acknowledged that his decision was not without risk (on the night of the interview, he said he'd had a new security system installed), and Officer Dunn remains one of the only Capitol Police officers to go on the record about his experience on Jan. 6. |
| LISTEN TO WEDNESDAY'S EPISODE: | | |
For your playlist this weekend |
Tuesday: A universal child benefit had long seemed impossible in the U.S. This week, it passed. How did we get here? |
Friday: In Part 2 of Odessa, one high school tries to bring back football during the pandemic. |
That's it for The Daily newsletter. See you next week. |
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