Suffer the Little Children

“Suffer the Little Children asks important questions about U.S. immigration policy. . . . Casavantes Bradford looks backward to the history of unaccompanied migrant children and forward to a more just future.”—Journal of Arizona History

“In light of ongoing debates around immigration globally, the book will appeal not just to historians but also to interdisciplinary scholars with interests in migration, childhood, and US politics.”—Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth

“Bradford takes readers on a comprehensive journey, offering a compelling exploration of the policies, practices, and attitudes surrounding child migration. By combining meticulous research with compassionate storytelling, the author succeeds in capturing the essence of this public policy issue and its profound impact on the lives of vulnerable children.”—Affilia

“Meticulously researched . . . .Bradford’s timely analysis reminds readers that children are autonomous individuals deserving of basic human rights—not political pawns in the game of American exceptionalism.”—CHOICE

“Timely and groundbreaking. . . . Suffer the Little Children is the first comprehensive book of its kind to provide such a thoughtful and thorough transnational analysis of the evolving history of unaccompanied refugee children in the United States—a necessary and outstanding contribution to critical refugee studies, especially in our day and age of escalating xenophobia.”—H-Diplo

“Suffer the Little Children is a historical marvel and a tour de force of scholarship. The scope is unmatched, offering a comprehensive, fine-grained analysis of the foreign and domestic policy context for unaccompanied children’s programs. The book’s transnational, comparative, and relational approach provides crucial new insights on how unaccompanied child migrants were consistently treated as extensions of their parents, communities, and home nations.”— Yến Lê Espiritu, author of Body Counts: The Vietnam War and Militarized Refuge(es)

“Breaking new ground, Anita Casavantes Bradford chronicles how, for close to a century, domestic politics and foreign policy considerations have shaped U.S. policies, laws, and commitments toward unaccompanied child migrants. This book is timely for a number of reasons, most obviously because of the arrival in the United States in recent years of unaccompanied minors from Central America and Mexico and the political debates that this has ignited—an outcome predicted in this history.”—Carl Bon Tempo, author of Americans at the Gate: The United States and Refugees during the Cold War