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Scott Dalton

Scott Dalton has spent years working throughout Latin America, including a decade in Colombia, where he photographed the civil conflict and drug war. His award-​winning documentary, La Sierra (2005), has been broadcast on PBS, BBC, and HBO Latino, and his photography has appeared in the New York Times, National Geographic, and the New Yorker.

Photographer

The border fence, Rio Grande Valley, Texas.

First the Fence, Then the System

Summer 2013 | Reporting

In early June, President Obama declared the wave of unaccompanied minors crossing illegally into the US—a number expected to reach 90,000 this year—an “urgent humanitarian situation.” While FEMA now coordinates their basic care, the federal government announced a paltry $2 million legal-aid program to provide unaccompanied minors legal representation—something the vast majority of them do not receive. Last year, Lauren Markham reported from the Rio Grande Valley on the legal limbo in which thousands of these kids—many of whom might qualify for asylum—find themselves.