Risks of crossing the border
There are many risks when it comes to crossing the border. Families are at risk of losing children to smugglers, gangs and authorities. After crossing, families remain separated due to deportation of one parent and financial instability to reunify.
Zero tolerance Policy
In 2018, this policy was put into place causing over 2,000 migrant children being forced away from their families. CBP officials arrested anyone who crossed the border without authorization. Officials were forced to separate migrant families leaving children unaccompanied.
The Aftermath
Following public outrage and political pressure, Trump signed an Executive order to revoke The Zero Tolerance Policy. Although this got rid of the policy, no thought was put into fixing the 2,000 cases of unaccompanied minors and reuniting them with their families. Many children were also "lost" in the process.
Emotional Distress
Many mixed-status families experience chronic fear and long term psychological effects.
"More than 4 million families in America are of mixed status: some family members are in the country illegally, while others have legal status or even U.S. citizenship." (Garsd, 2025)
Even family members who have citizenship experience chronic fear and worry that their undocumented family members will be taken from them. Joanna Dreby a sociologist at the University at Albany says "It's really important to remember that children know what's going on. I've had children tell me, 'I'm worried that they're going to take mom away.' I had an eight year old tell me he had a backpack in his closet ready to run away in case ICE came, and he had never talked to his parents about it." In this statement we can see how immigration emotionally effects young children.
Dad is in Atlantis: Written by Javier Malpica (2006)
Storyline
This piece highlights the reality of the dangers of crossing the border and family separation. In this play, two young brothers are forced to live with their Grandmother in Mexico as their dad sets out to find a better life in "Atlantis" which we later discover is the United States. The two brothers dislike living with their grandma and decide to cross the border themselves to reunite with their dad. The boys endure extreme conditions as they cross through the desert putting themselves in extreme danger. In the end, it is unknown whether the children make it to their father or not.
Through out the play, the boys conversations reveal their innocence. We also see their hope and confusion to real life situations they have never been exposed to. The play uses minimal props however two pieces used throughout the play are wooden boxes in the shape of coffins which in the ends gives the audience the idea that they do not make it to their Atlantis.
Central theme
This reflects a very real pattern in migration that a parent leaves before the rest of the family because it’s too dangerous or expensive for everyone to go together. But that decision creates a painful separation. The children are left behind without stability, and eventually they’re forced to make the journey themselves.
“A borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary.”
Gloria Anzaldúa