Photographs are powerful as they can evoke deep emotional responses in the viewer. When publishing controversial or striking images, one must be careful with how they are framed as these images can easily be misinterpreted. When John Moore, a photojournalist, was covering immigration at the US-Mexican border he snapped a picture of a child named Yelena crying as she watched her mother, Sandra, interrogated by border control. Activists used Yalena’s photo to condemn President Trump and his administration for their inhumane immigration policies. But when it was later reported that Yalena’s separation from her mother was temporary, the Trump administration used it as evidence of being the victims of “fake news.” When this photograph was used to condemn Trump and his policies many forgot that these issues expand beyond a singular presidency. As the Obama Administration has the highest deportation rate of 2.5 million it appears that unjust deportation is not just a Trump issue; it is an American issue (Marshall, 2016). Context is needed when using powerful imagery; otherwise, journalists risk publishing inaccuracies and acting dishonourably. Does a lie matter if it does some good?
Due to images having the potential to evoke deep emotional responses, photographers, journalists, and activists must frame these photos responsibly as once an image is shared its context can easily be misrepresented. This was noted when the photo of Yalena Cruz, an immigrant child, went viral and became a representation of the trauma inflicted on immigrants by the Trump administration. The image’s photographer, John Moore, is a photojournalist covering immigration at the US Mexican border for over a decade. Moore stated he uses his photojournalism to highlight trauma at the border, to give a voice to the voiceless, and to humanize immigration issues (Estrin, 2019). Without visual representation, many can dismiss “the other” and insist immigration is a political issue rather than a human rights issue (Estrin, 2019). Moore was on a ride-along with border security when he captured an image that depicted young Yalena sobbing as she watched her mother handcuffed by border control. Moore labelled the photograph as “a separation” because after he took the photo he continued his ride along and did not know what happened to the pair later on (Estrin, 2019). Once published, the image soon went viral and led to millions being donated to activists and groups opposing the Trump administration's immigration policies (Estrin, 2019). As John Moore stated, “Photos take on a life of their own — all we can hope is that we caption it correctly.” (Estrin, 2019). However, despite becoming a symbol of family separation, it was later discovered that Yanela was only briefly separated from her mom so that border control could conduct a body search.
When Yalena’s photo was published the Trump administration was condemned for their inhumane immigration policies. Such as forcefully separating children from their parents to deter illegal immigration. These separated children suffered psychological and developmental damage due to the trauma of being separated from their parents and being neglected by border control (Ryo, 2019). Today, over 500 children remain separated as the administration has lost track of their parents (CBC-Radio, 2020). As Yanela’s image evoked strong emotions when it reached the public, many used it to represent the trauma inflicted by the Trump Administration’s immigration policies. For example, Yanela was included on the cover of Times Magazine accompanied by a picture of Trump looking down at her disinterested — representing his indifference to the human rights violations enacted by his administration. But while thousands of immigrants faced permanent separation at the border Yalena did not. It was irresponsible for journalists to mislead people on the image’s context.
Although the Times noticed their captioning error and corrected it, the damage was already done (Sacks, 2018). Accidentally misrepresenting this image allowed the Trump administration to dismiss criticism and evade accountability by using this incident as “proof” of being the victim of ‘fake news.” With all the injustices Trump has committed, and how he built his xenophobic campaign, I wonder why this photo became the representation of his cruelty (Leblanc, 2017). Misrepresenting this photo to condemn Trump, to me, appears to be a form of clickbait. Clickbait often misrepresents images and headlines to increase digital traffic to websites, articles, and/or videos (Ntourntourekas, Crowe, Coughlin, 2020). With all that Trump and his administration have done to dehumanize immigrants, why has a misrepresented image been more effective than using authentic representations of Trump’s policies? Could this have been an innocent mistake by The Times? Or was it an intentional decision to use this child to push sales and direct traffic towards their site? Context is needed when using powerful imagery; otherwise, authors and publishers risk publishing inaccuracies and acting unethically (Ntourntourekas, Crowe, Coughlin, 2020). In this era of ”‘fake news” and “alternative facts,” one must be accurate with the news they report and the images they present. Giving Trump and his supporters the slightest opportunity to attack falsehoods, no matter how small they may be, allows them to dismiss accurate criticism by referring to past misinformation published by the press.
The reframing of this image, while having noble intentions, is problematic. After the outrage wore off and time passed, people began to explore the image’s context. It was discovered that this was not Sandra’s first experience with border control as she was deported in 2013 during the Obama administration (Sacks, 2018). When exploring Obama’s immigration policies and deportation statistics, I learned that his deportation numbers far outweighed those of the Trump administration. For example, Obama amassed 409, 849 deportations while Trump amassed 256,085 in his first year as president comparatively (Caldwell, Radnofsky, 2019). These statistics led me to question why immigration issues have been considered Trump’s fault entirely while previous presidents have extensive and problematic histories with deportation. I learned that what differentiates Trump’s immigration policies from others is that he has created a state of fear for immigrants by removing regulations such as keeping families intact within deportation, instead of only targeting immigrants with a criminal background (Ryo, 2019). While the Trump administration sought to kick out any form of illegal immigration regardless of circumstances, the Obama Administration had much more structure within policies, such as only targeting immigrants with a criminal history (Caldwell, Radnofsky, 2019).
Although this policy was intended to target criminals convicted of felonies, those accused and charged with minor crimes were targeted as well, which lead to inflated deportation numbers (Caldwell, Radnofsky, 2019). The contrast between Obama’s deportation numbers and Trump’s makes me wonder about the dangers in framing this photograph as entirely Trump’s wrongdoings. Trump starring down an innocent child as she weeps no longer is entirely accurate with the caption “Welcome to America” because this practice is not a Trump issue, it is an American issue. By representing this as a result of the Trump presidencies separation of families this only contributes to how the Trump administration describes the information that does not benefit them, as “fake news” (Lauricella, 2018). All in all, as long as the injustices committed by immigration and customs agencies go unchecked, immigrants will continue to suffer regardless of which president is in office.
Photographs go viral as they often can evoke deep emotions. Using photos to represent divisive issues such as immigration must be done carefully as one’s interpretation of a photograph can inadvertently contribute to disinformation. After many used Yalena’s photo to condemn Trump and his administration for their inhumane immigration policies it was later reported that Yalena’s separation from her mother was temporary which allowed the Trump administration to dismiss criticism as “fake news.” To ensure guilty parties are held accountable one must be accurate in the reporting of these injustices. If one wants to critique the Trump Administration appropriately, it is best not to misrepresent ideas; fighting fire with fire only burns the whole forest down.
References
Caldwell, A., & Radnofsky, L. (2019, August 03). Why Trump Has Deported Fewer Immigrants Than Obama. Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-trump-has-deported-fewer-immigrants-than-obama-11564824601
Estrin, J. (2019, April 11). Is This the Best Photo of the Year? Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/lens/is-this-the-best-photo-of-the-year.html
Lauricella, S. (2018, Fall). Does the Photo Fit the News? The Ethics of Powerful Images in the Immigration Debate. Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://www.mediaethicsmagazine.com/index.php/browse-back-issues/210-fall-2018-vol/3999232-does-the-photo-fit-the-news
LeBlanc, C. (2020). What is “Fake News”? Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://fakenews.pressbooks.com/chapter/what-is-fake-news/
Marshall, S. (2016, August 29). Obama Has Deported More People Than Any Other President. Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obamas-deportation-policy-numbers/story?id=41715661
Ntourntourekas, L., Crowe, N., & Coughlin, R. (2017). Who Creates Fake News? Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://fakenews.pressbooks.com/chapter/who-creates-fake-news/
Ryo, E. (2019, July 29). How ICE enforcement has changed under the Trump administration. Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://theconversation.com/how-ice-enforcement-has-changed-under-the-trump-administration-120322
Sacks, E. (2018, June 22). Time issues correction for photo of crying 2-year-old migrant. Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/immigration-border-crisis/time-issues-correction-photo-crying-2-year-old-migrant-n885836
This NGO is leading the search for parents separated from children at U.S-Mexico border | CBC Radio. (2020, October 22). Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.5772498/this-ngo-is-leading-the-search-for-parents-separated-from-children-at-u-s-mexico-border-1.5772501
