‘The Effect Is Catastrophic’: Medical Experts Speak Out Against Policy Of Separating Migrant Kids From Parents
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians and the American Psychiatric Association have all issued statements against the Trump administration's new policy. “To pretend that separated children do not grow up with the shrapnel of this traumatic experience embedded in their minds is to disregard everything we know about child development, the brain, and trauma,” reads a separate petition from mental health professionals.
The New York Times:
A Troubling Prognosis For Migrant Children In Detention: ‘The Earlier They’re Out, The Better’
Some youngsters retreat entirely, their eyes empty, bodies limp, their isolation a wall of defiance. Others cannot sit still: watchful, hyperactive, ever uncertain. Some compulsively jump into the laps of strangers, or grab their legs and hold on for life. And some children, somehow, move past a sudden separation from their parents, tapping a well of resilience. The Trump administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents has alarmed child psychologists and experts who study human development. (Carey, 6/18)
The Associated Press:
Immigrant Kids Seen Held In Fenced Cages At Border Facility
Inside an old warehouse in South Texas, hundreds of immigrant children wait in a series of cages created by metal fencing. One cage had 20 children inside. Scattered about are bottles of water, bags of chips and large foil sheets intended to serve as blankets. One teenager told an advocate who visited that she was helping care for a young child she didn't know because the child's aunt was somewhere else in the facility. She said she had to show others in her cell how to change the girl's diaper. (Merchant, 6/18)
The Washington Post:
What Separation From Parents Does To Children: ‘The Effect Is Catastrophic’
This is what happens inside children when they are forcibly separated from their parents. Their heart rate goes up. Their body releases a flood of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. Those stress hormones can start killing off dendrites — the little branches in brain cells that transmit messages. In time, the stress can start killing off neurons and — especially in young children — wreaking dramatic and long-term damage, both psychologically and to the physical structure of the brain. (Wan, 6/18)
The Hill:
American Academy Of Pediatrics President: Trump Family Separation Policy Is 'Child Abuse'
The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday said President Trump's “zero tolerance” policy separating families at the U.S.-Mexico border “amounts to child abuse.” Dr. Colleen Kraft in an appearance on CNN described the many ways Trump’s policy emotionally harms children and laid out in detail what she witnessed when she toured an immigration detention center. (Wise, 6/18)
