Detainees in a fenced in area inside a detention facility in McAllen, Texas.
Hammer Forum

POSTPONED: Family Separation and Detention at the Border

  • This is a past program

Due to uncertainty around COVID-19, the Hammer is temporarily closed to the public and this program has been postponed. For COVID-19 updates impacting the UCLA community, please visit UCLA’s Newsroom.

Hammer Forum is made possible by the Rosenbloom Family

The separation of migrant children and parents in for-profit detention centers on the southern US border is a source of outrage nationally and worldwide. Despite legal challenges and desist rulings by US judges, and the deaths of children in custody, the Trump administration intends to expand the program. Leisy Abrego, UCLA professor of Chicana/o and Central American studies, moderates a discussion with Esther Portillo, founder of the Human Rights Alliance for Refugee Children and Families, and Suyapa Portillo, associate professor at Pitzer College and co-founder of May Day Trans Queer Contingent.

All public programs are free and made possible by a major gift from an anonymous donor.
 
Generous support is also provided by Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy, Good Works Foundation and Laura Donnelley, the Elizabeth Bixby Janeway Foundation, The Samuel Goldwyn Foundation, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, an anonymous donor, and all Hammer members.
 
Digital presentation of Hammer public programs is made possible by The Billy and Audrey L. Wilder Foundation.
 
Hammer public programs are presented online in partnership with the #KeepThePromise campaign—a movement promoting social justice and human rights through the arts.

Hammer Forum is an ongoing series of timely, thought-provoking discussions addressing current social and political issues.