Maybe this price tag will so offend House Speaker Paul Ryan's sensibilities that he'll finally want to do something about it: $580,000 in shelter costs each day for keeping families apart. That's the Kaiser Family Foundation's calculation based on the spending for shelter beds in fiscal year 2014. That's for the 2,342 children HHS has reported separated from their families, but they note that "estimates suggest that daily costs for tent-based shelters could be over three times higher than this FY 2014 average."
That's the fiscal cost which increases to $17.4 million every 30 days. The moral costs can't be weighed. The damage that's being wrought on the health of these families—right now and in the future—is also incalculable.
In the short term, toxic stress can increase the risk and frequency of infections in children as high levels of stress hormones suppress the body's immune system. It can also result in developmental issues due to reduced neural connections to important areas of the brain. Toxic stress is associated with damage to areas of the brain responsible for learning and memory.
Over the long term, toxic stress may manifest as poor coping skills and stress management, unhealthy lifestyles, adoption of risky health behaviors, and mental health issues, such as depression. Toxic stress is also associated with increased rates of physical conditions into adulthood, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, obesity, ischemic heart disease, diabetes, asthma, cancer, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Consider the trauma that they've already suffered—the violence at home, the long and arduous journey to the border. Now their families are being ripped from their families, perhaps never to be reunited. To understand just how damaging this will be for these children—for their entire lives—read this from former Naval officer and professor at the University of Idaho Michael Satz, who experienced it first hand as a foster child.
Despite Satz's numerous achievements in life, he still suffers PTSD from that experience: "I went to a good home and have a fantastic mother who loves me now and loved me then. I got an education, joined the military, became an attorney and am now an educator. With all of that going for me, I still face the trauma of that day regularly." These children will not have all those advantages. Trump is needlessly and maliciously creating a generation of broken people.
Can you give $5 to help keep immigrant families together—or bring them back together after separation?