Original version

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

Assignment

Factual

Investigations and journeys into the heart of global events from BBC correspondents.

No Master Brand

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC Afghan Radio

Assignment: Border Stories, part 1: Zero Tolerance

Documentaries

News

(Image: An arm round her shoulder. Credit: Tim Mansel/BBC)

14/03/2024 GMT

Border Stories, part 1: Zero Tolerance

BBC World Service - Assignment, Border Stories, part 1: Zero Tolerance

The ongoing effects of Zero Tolerance, the policy that divided families on the US border

How Zero Tolerance, the 2018 policy that separated children from their parents on the US border, still resonates as the United States prepares to elect a new president.

In 2018 the US government under President Trump introduced a policy of “zero tolerance” at its border with Mexico. Anyone attempting to enter the US without documentation would be prosecuted, even if it was a first offence. If they were travelling with children, their children would be taken from them. The policy was cancelled within weeks but not before thousands of families had been separated. Six years on, several hundred are still to be reunited.
 
Migration is perhaps the most important battleground in this year’s presidential election. Both President Biden and his challenger, Donald Trump, have made recent visits to the border. And Zero Tolerance still resonates.

Linda Pressly hears about the pain of separation as experienced by a man from Guatemala; speaks to the people still trying to put families back together; and asks if a new administration might turn again to Zero Tolerance in an attempt to deter would-be migrants to the United States.

Presenter: Linda Pressly
Producer: Tim Mansel
Sound: Neil Churchill
Production co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Penny Murphy

(Image: An arm round her shoulder. Credit: Tim Mansel/BBC)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Assignment

Border Stories, part 1: Zero Tolerance

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

About BBC World Service