My Name Is Darlin. I Just Came Out of Detention.

Isn't the point of this video the completely unnecessary separation of family members during this whole process? If they are to be detained, then detain them together. If they are to wait somewhere for a hearing, then have them wait together. If they are to be deported, then deport them together! For heaven's sake. Life is short, and family is important. The issue of family separation is completely separate from the issue of how to reduce illegal migration and how to determine if someone deserves asylum or not. We are deliberately choosing to split families apart and stress them out when that has NOTHING to do with telling someone, yes, you're approved or sorry, you will have to return home. Let's not confuse problems. A family that illegally enters the U.S. does not need to be separated. That is purely an arbitrary decision that we have made about how to handle an influx of people. At the least, let's be humane about how we treat families while we work to figure out how many people our nation can afford to support, and how to help people stay in their homelands.

My husband came here with his parents when he was 3. His mom did not have another baby for 7 years. They waited until they were stable and could afford it. I am liberal but this just isn’t right.

I wish all these immigrant haters with all their tired old tropes could magically be transported to Honduras, with their families for a 1 month stay - and live in the same circumstances as these immigrants. If they survived the first week without getting shot, they would probably go insane by the end of the month. By that time they would likely be starting on the long trek to America to do time in a detention center. Take a walk in someone else’s shoes before you judge.

The bottom line is that we are all fed up with financing someone's choice to have a baby without the means to pay for that child. It's a sacrifice that many of us make but we witness millions of other place the burden of that cost on the rest of us...illegal or not.

I don't know what makes me sadder... Darlin's story, or the abject heartlessness of the all of the commenters so far.

Superb. Thank you Ms. Castro, very well done. It's very visceral to have the neutral reports from the media and cold data from the government reduced to living, breathing human beings in crisis. I do wonder about our humanity as Americans, I fear we are losing our capacity for sympathy and empathy. Racism still seems to be branded on our national DNA. So baseless when the objects of our hate are all but identical to us genetically, and so dehumanizing, for us and for them. I was greatly cheered by Darlin's strength and grace though; has not that been the story of the immigrant in America: big hope for a better life in the land of the free. I wish her family the vey best.

Isn't the point of this video the completely unnecessary separation of family members during this whole process? If they are to be detained, then detain them together. If they are to wait somewhere for a hearing, then have them wait together. If they are to be deported, then deport them together! For heaven's sake. Life is short, and family is important. The issue of family separation is completely separate from the issue of how to reduce illegal migration and how to determine if someone deserves asylum or not. We are deliberately choosing to split families apart and stress them out when that has NOTHING to do with telling someone, yes, you're approved or sorry, you will have to return home. Let's not confuse problems. A family that illegally enters the U.S. does not need to be separated. That is purely an arbitrary decision that we have made about how to handle an influx of people. At the least, let's be humane about how we treat families while we work to figure out how many people our nation can afford to support, and how to help people stay in their homelands.

Separating children from parents or relatives who say they are the parents is wrong. Our lax enforcement of laws for the past 40 years is the reason we are now seeing caravans and people from Africa, Haiti, the Middle East coming toward our borders, not just Latin Americans. There was a time when we could have controlled immigration by enforcing labor laws and e-verify. The only answer now is to restrict entry to people who will become citizens and succeed in our country, and not add to our already swollen welfare rolls. Yes, we are a wealthy country, and we can afford to take in desperate people, but not every desperate person in the world. Blame the government for this mess, and blame us for winking and hiring.

Well. I don't know. This opened up waterworks I have been holding on to for weeks..... Though you would not know it, if you saw me, I am grief stricken. I have lost something enormous these past three years. four if you count 2015. I have lost many friends. I have lost faith in many people. I have lost faith in my country, in my place in the world and in my faith in humanity. I am saddened every single day by the examples in my daily life of the indifference to suffering that my fellow citizens can easily tolerate. Their intolerance, indifference and sometimes downright meanness has changed me in irrevocable ways. As an example.... I just commented on another piece here. A person helpfully instructed a Dreamer to "leave" after expounding supposed sympathy for her situation. It was one of the thousands of such sentiments that I have read. Reminders that people are devoid of empathy, kindness, grace.....somethign I used to believe was in high quantities around me but which now I see is sorely lacking. .....and then comes this simple piece. Why am I crying? Words. Certain words. "three years younger than I am"---the author is trying to put herself in Darlin's shoes. "I tried to understand"..... reminded me of my favorite Stephen Covery adage, "seek to understand and not be understood".... The inherent decency in the writer. The name "Darlin" which sounds so much like an endearment than a person in peril. THANK. YOU. Today, I needed this.

These immigration familial situations have been occurring since the INA was written by the US Congress. All of a sudden Trump is President and all of these situations hit the press on a daily basis. Enough already. If you break the law then you suffer the consequences.

Wow, I am shocked by so the ignorance of so many of these comments. Readers who keep calling this family "illegal" and those who said they came to the US "illegally"-- Do you realize that US law says that if people are seeking asylum (i.e. they are seeking protection as a refugee and waiting for processing) are supposed to present at the border and ask for protection. Under U.S. law, a “refugee” is a person who is unable or unwilling to return to his or her home country because of a “well-founded fear of persecution” due to race, membership in a particular social group, political opinion, religion, or national origin. These human beings, real life men, women and children, are fleeing violence, tremendous unemployment rates and terrible political instability. Many are literally fearing for their lives. International law says that if you are fearing for your life, you should go to a border and ask for protection. There is NOTHING illegal about that. And what happened to this family? Jefry presented with his son Hamilthon to the border to ask for protection, and his young son-- his child-- was physically removed from him and send thousands of miles away. For what crime? And what crime in this country is punished by removing a child from his father's custody? It's so atrocious it's practically unbelievable. Shame on you for your ignorance. And shame on you for not walking in that mom or dad's shoes for 15 whole minutes. Thank you, Isabel, for this documentary.

So very sad, indeed tragic. Another child on the way in these extremely difficult circumstances. Poor mother, father, all. Planned Parenthood might have made a difference. Is there any assistance from those who oppose abortion to help Darlin as her story continues?

I told myself I didn't have time to watch a 15 minutes video, but once I clicked on it I couldn't stop watching. How painful. Powerful. And in ten-year-old Hamilton's moments of joy (including when he literally cannot wait to jump on the school bus in his Texas neighborhood), his fear and his shining intelligence, how wonderfully affirming. What's to be done in this situation? I begin to think it's impossible to resolve. The process of osmosis as it relates to movements of people -- impoverished and oppressed people moving inexorably toward those regions that are freer and more stable, is a force that can never be "deterred" long-term. I admire the film-maker for illustrating so simply the lives that are at stake.

It saddens me to see the depth of animosity, rudeness, and plain cruelty that is now such a large part of life in America. I can remember when people there treated one another -- friend or stranger -- with civility and genuine goodwill. I admit I liked America better then.

The comments are hard to read. But what bothers me about the immigration rhetoric is the lack of journalism about the employers and the US mafia that traffics with immigrants. For example, the arrest of over 700 undocumented migrants. Zero arrests for the employers. Businesses did not receive an influx of US nationals workers to replace the ones detained. The same has happened every time for many decades now. So if the government is going to separate families, and be tough on immigration, what about starting at home, with the employers and the cartels that traffic people to make their businesses more profitable.

Besides looking for a protagonist that would support a pre-conceived narrative to her story, Ms. Castro claims she got involved with Darlin in "an attempt to understand a government policy that was incomprehensible to me," fair enough. Unfortunately she doesn't say if she wrote to her Representative in Congress to ask clarification about that policy she doesn't understand. Surely that would be a great starting point, and possibly her representative would explain to her about the US laws, and the process established to deal with asylum petitioners, and the process American citizens, not aliens, can use to change those laws, and how taxes pay for those services Darlin and her family get free of charge. But that would deprive Ms. Castro of a logical flow about her theme.

It seems that the central theme of anti-immigration folks is that immigrants are taking our jobs and/or money. If wealthy immigrants came here and were not looking for work because they have so much money, is that the ideal scenario? Is that what people are wanting? Or is it something else. I'm very curious. Let's look at the facts. America has MORE THAN ENOUGH money to offer basic benefits to immigrants (and native citizens!!!) who need it. Despite having TRILLIONS of dollars within our economy, people seem to think that there's just not enough money out there to offer anything good to the people in this country. Let's distribute our wealth better, instead of concentrating all the wealth within a small group instead of pretending there isn't any money. Furthermore, the work immigrants do HELPS OUR ECONOMY which in turn offers more jobs to native citizens. For every job an immigrant "takes" from an American, even more jobs are created. It's a net gain. Immigration is not a zero sum game. More is more when it comes to immigration. More does not mean less for you. Immigration makes our country strong. Yes, we can't take every person who wants to come here. Nobody is arguing for that. But let's keep America a place people want to come to, ok? We want to be the restaurant with a line out the door, not a restaurant that nobody wants to eat at.

The bottom-line is they came to the US illegally. Therefore, in a way, what's happened to them has been voluntary. They may be very nice people, hardworking, but they are here illegally. If what's happened to them bothers people who are US citizens and can vote, those people should work to change the law and our immigration system through their elected representatives. Unless it's a case of political asylum where an immigrant's life is at risk, US taxpayers should not be asked to support any immigrant, legal or illegal. Let's take that tax money and provide adequate health care for our veterans.

I read the comments before looking at the video and raised an eyebrow at the tone of most of the comments. A minute or so into the video explained it all. The last thing anyone should do in attempting to elicit compassion for a people’s plight is show people with skin that dark to Americans. Next time, use some folks coming in from Europe.

One day or the other, there should be full stop, comma won’t help.

They should never have been allowed in and should be sent home ASAP.

While I believe we need to help those escaping violence, I also believe that if you have not become legal via the process hearing, and have no green card, no job the least you can do is not have more children, since it will be the American taxpayer paying for the child. It would also be nice if our government and the UN got serious about making sure these countries people are leaving, start caring about their own people! How many millions of US aid have gone to Honduras and not been tracked to make sure the money hasn't gone to corrupt government leaders? And what about the tens of thousands of folks who have played by the rules and filed out the forms for legal immigration, and have been waiting 2,3, 5 years?

There needs to be far more stories on the countries from which these immigrants come from highlighting the massive corruption and total indifference of the plutocrats in those countries toward their own working class. It's the plutocrats of these countries who are to blame, in the same way that slave-owning class of the South was responsible for runaway slaves to the North. There is very little difference between the behavior of the slave-owning class of the South and the plutocrat class of the immigrant-sending countries of today. And what's worse for us today is that not only is there nobody talking about it, there is no plan by any of these countries to make things better. Sure, we must have compassion for these migrants, as many people in the North had compassion for runaway slaves before abolition. But we, the United States, have to put full-court pressure on the plutocrat class of these countries to make life better for the working class. They can start by doubling the minimum wage in those countries, where the working class receives a much smaller share of national income than the working class of the US. Then they can start forcing their plutocrats to pay their fair share of taxes. Doing these two things alone would reduce migration significantly. But like I said, there is no plan, only to dump the excess population into the US and let us worry about it.

They can be together any time they want -- outside the USA. The legal presence in the USA of one family member does not grant the right to legal presence to another. Whatever separation they claim to suffer is a separation of their own making.

Family members could be happily united in their native country without the fear of being deported

Uneducated, non English speaking and pregnant. While she be a productive citizen? I spent many years in the Bronx with immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Haiti-barring exceptions, they all replicated the inner city indigent folk culture-unemployment, teenage pregnancy, drugs, violence and an abundance of children.

If the boarders will be sealed tight to uneducated migrants and illegals the problems of detention camps and dividing families will disappear. Americas needy, homeless, poor families come first.

The problem with these videos by the NY Times is I don't think they serve to advance the discussion on immigration if they are meant to merely tug at our heart strings. Rather they just illustrate to those who against immigration, xenophobic, etc. further reasons to argue against rational immigration policy. People are right when they say media does not focus on the problems of citizens enough, at least if I went by the Op-docs. So many have concentrated on immigration and not enough about the struggle US citizens face. Also, the immigrants portrayed do themselves no favors in some circumstances with the way they behave. For instance, it stands out to me that Darlin, despite her precarious immigration status, economic situation, etc. still chose to have another child. Perhaps this is a ploy to have a baby turn citizen merely because they are born in the country. (I've seen this happen both with poor and wealthy, educated immigrants/ tourists.) Having a child is an extra strain on her, her family, the country, our taxes, etc. but did she or her partner think about that? Note I am my family were immigrants ourselves -- refugee from another country -- and my mother made well and sure not to have children during the years we first arrived. She did it for our family but that also has consequences for the country, on a macro level when extended to millions of immigrants.

These stories are sad and endless. But what to do. On this issue to a large degree today it seems to boil down to a choice between those that essentially want open borders for everyone (what could be called the good-hearted fool approach). And those that don't want hardly any immigrants (the cold hearted view). And most of us who believe in a balance between having compassion and equally what is rational and affordable. Most know we'd be overrun with immigrants if we throw the doors open with little or no rules or restrictions. Most of us believe we should take in immigrants, but there have to be limits, we want rational rules and vetting followed. People should come in at established ports of entry, they need to be screened to ensure that they don’t represent a threat to the country. Are they educated, do they have skills we need. No, we shouldn't separate children, but it seems we don't have facilities to house & feed all in comfort for months or years while some pursue asylum claims. And also provide medical care, schooling and other services for everyone who wants in. And economic migrants are not the same as refugees from war and violence, which potentially number countless millions by themselves. So what's the answer, it certainly isn't simple. It's a complicated problem -- we should be as humane as possible but we also have to be rational. We should strive for that humane goal as best we reasonably can. Don't know what else we can do and be realistic.

Trump is really pleased that liberals are taking his bait and keeping the immigration issue in the news day after day, because it makes liberals seem as stupid as he is to the American public. If you care about the suffering of the poor people in central America, including the children, consider this. If a parent brings two children into the state of CA and they stay. Those children will cost the taxpayers of CA close to $40,000 a year just for their schooling. How much good could be done for the children in Guatemala with that kind of money if it was used down there where tens of thousands of children are suffering the consequences of a failed government. Immigration policies have to make sense to more than our hearts. Start thinking liberals, or give Trump another 4 years. Complain about his foreign policy and sew into it the issue of helping these poor people. Stupid kind-hardheartedness that wastes resources in indefensible. Mother Theresa would know better.