Separation Policy May Be Over, But The Psychological Trauma Isn’t, Mental Health Experts Warn
There are no clear plans to reunite the migrant children who were separated from their parents, and mental health experts say that continued stress is bound to take a psychological toll. “People have been very focused on technical pieces of this process, and the egregiousness of children in cages,” said Jennifer Rodriguez, executive director of the Youth Law Center, an advocacy group based in San Francisco and focused on protecting the rights of children. “But they’re not thinking about most basic fundamental trauma we’re inflicting on people.”
The New York Times:
Reuniting And Detaining Migrant Families Pose New Mental Health Risks
The chaotic process of reuniting thousands of migrant children and parents separated by the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy poses great psychological risks, both short- and long-term, mental health experts said on Friday. So does holding those families indefinitely while they await legal proceedings, which could happen under the president’s new executive order. The administration has no clear plan to reunite migrant families, which is sure to carry a psychological price for migrant parents and more than 2,300 children separated from them at the border in recent months. More than 400 are under age 12, and many are toddlers. (Carey, 6/22)
The New York Times:
The Challenges For Doctors Treating Migrant Children Separated From Their Parents
Clinicians at public hospitals in New York City who have started seeing children separated from their families at the border are concerned about the psychological impact of the separation as well as the practical challenge of treating children whose medical history is unknown. At a news conference on Thursday, officials announced that at least 12 such children had been seen at public hospitals including Bellevue, Kings County and North Central Bronx, brought in by their new caretakers. Dr. Mitchell Katz, president and chief executive of NYC Health & Hospitals, described the children “being brought in by loving foster families struggling to take care of these children,” but aware that they have been traumatized by the separation. (Klass, 6/25)
The Washington Post:
Separated Immigrant Children Are All Over The U.S. Now, Far From Parents Who Don’t Know Where They Are
Their mothers are missing, their fathers far away. They get pizza, maybe cold cuts. They are exhausted; they cannot sleep. There are other children around, but they had never seen those kids before, and those kids are crying or screaming or rocking or spreading the feeling that everything is not okay. The children who were forcibly separated from their parents at the border by the United States government are all over the country now, in Michigan and Maryland, in foster homes in California and shelters in Virginia, in cold, institutional settings with adults who are not permitted to touch them or with foster parents who do not speak Spanish but who hug them when they cry. (Sacchetti, Sieff and Fisher, 6/24)
Los Angeles Times:
Administration Says It Has A Plan To Reunite Immigrant Families; Democrats Are Skeptical
Democrats responded skeptically Sunday to the Trump administration’s assertion that it has a process in place to reunite more than 2,000 “separated minors” with their parents, while Republican lawmakers sought to defend the president’s immigration policies and again promised that all the children taken from their parents in recent weeks were accounted for. Trump himself, however, redoubled his denunciation of all unauthorized arrivals, even those engaging in the legal act of seeking asylum. In a message on Twitter, he suggested that people crossing the border should be deported summarily, without a court hearing. (King, 6/24)
Kaiser Health News:
Fearing Deportation, Immigrant Parents Are Opting Out Of Health Benefits For Kids
The fear of family separation is nothing new for many immigrants already living in the U.S. In fact, that fear, heightened in recent weeks, has been forcing a tough decision for a while. Advocates say a growing number of American children are dropping out of Medicaid and other government programs because their parents are not citizens. Marlene is an undocumented resident of Texas and has two children who are U.S. citizens who qualify for Medicaid, the federal-state program for low-income people. (Kaiser Health News is not using Marlene’s last name because of her immigration status.) One of her children has some disabilities. (Lopez, 6/25)
KQED:
Leading Immigrant Aid Group Says No Thanks To 23andMe Offer To Help Reunite Detained Families
A leading immigrant aid group is refusing a Silicon Valley DNA testing company's offer to help reunite families separated along the border. In a series of tweets this week, 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki said the company would offer its genetic testing services, amid concerns that immigration officials lacked the records necessary to connect parents with their children. (Hossaini, 6/24)
San Francisco Chronicle:
23andMe’s DNA Kit Offer For Reuniting Migrant Families Raises Privacy Concerns
Mountain View genetic testing company 23andMe has offered to donate DNA test kits to help migrant children in detention centers reunite with their parents — prompting logistical and ethical concerns about an undertaking that genetics experts say would be a first in the United States. (Ho, 6/22)
WBUR:
A Latino Nonprofit Is Holding Separated Kids. Is That Care Or Complicity Or Both?
Today, Southwest Key has 26 shelters in Texas, Arizona and California, housing more than 5,100 immigrant minors. That's about half of the total population in the custody of Health and Human Services. (Domonoske, 6/22)
Arizona Republic:
Southwest Key Gets $458M To House Migrant Children; Pays CEO $1.5 Mil
The federal government's fight against illegal immigration has become a booming business for a non-profit housing at metro-Phoenix and Tucson shelters migrant children separated from their parents. Texas-based Southwest Key Programs was paid at least $458 million in fiscal 2018 to house unaccompanied children, as President Donald Trump's administration has enforced its "zero-tolerance" policy of prosecuting all who cross the border illegally. (Harris, 6/22)
