In 2018, the Trump administration initiated a “zero-tolerance” border policy wherein they criminally prosecuted all individuals who were apprehended crossing the border without proper authorization. The policy change resulted in numerous migrant children being separated from their parents. Through a qualitative content analysis of 1500 YouTube comments made in response to CNN and ProPublica news coverage, we examine each side’s aligning activity. Separation challengers claimed border crossers were innocent while condemning their opponents as racist, cruel, and otherwise shameful. Separation advocates bolstered their own claims of innocence by denying that the detainees are victims and condemning separation challengers as hypocrites, dishonest, complicit in illegal immigration, and generally loathsome. These findings show that, enabled by social media, aligning activity in stigma contests can produce a liminal stigma, where identities suffer the ideational aspects of stigma but not necessarily the loss of social status.

中文翻译：

---

阈限污名和分裂活动：关于特朗普家庭分离政策的在线评论

2018 年，特朗普政府启动了“零容忍”边境政策，对所有未经适当授权越境被捕的人进行刑事起诉。政策变化导致许多流动儿童与父母分离。通过对 1500 条响应 CNN 和 ProPublica 新闻报道的 YouTube 评论进行定性内容分析，我们检查了每一方的对齐活动。分离挑战者声称过境者是无辜的，同时谴责他们的对手是种族主义、残忍和可耻的。分离倡导者否认被拘留者是受害者，并谴责分离挑战者是伪君子、不诚实、非法移民的同谋，而且普遍令人厌恶，从而支持了他们自己的清白主张。这些发现表明，