We all remember the young girls being led into the Cayuga Center a couple of nights ago, and Mayor Di Blasio’s News Conference the next day talking about the hundreds of kids shipped there from the border.
But a new reports tell of a much wider stress on New York’s foster care system.
NBC New York
“Federal authorities must provide information on the estimated 700 immigrant children sent to foster care agencies in New York state after being separated from their parents, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday as he continued to bash the Trump administration's handling of the humanitarian crisis on the southern border.
New York is receiving so many displaced children because the state has one of the largest foster-care networks in the nation, Cuomo said. The Democrat says he's sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar requesting information on the children being housed in New York so the state can provide appropriate services, including counseling and mental health evaluations. (snip)
The head of NYC Health + Hospitals, Mitchell Katz, said foster parents have brought in at least 12 of these children for symptoms ranging from asthma to depression -- one was even suicidal, he said. Eight have been seen in the Bronx, and four at Bellevue.
"Just imagine for a moment that your child has been taken away from you, and what reaction you would expect from your child," he said. "Not surprising that one of the 12 children actually presented suicidal."
"They are sad, despondent and we are unable to help them with their emotional scars," said Dr. Daran Kaufman, who oversees pediatric emergency at North Central Bronx Hospital.
"Our clinicians have been feeling helpless," she said.”
The article states that the children seem well cared for and many offers to foster the children have been coming in.
Other locations include:
The Children's Village in Dobbs Ferry — 17 undocumented minors
MercyFirst on Long Island, where eight migrant children between the ages 6 to 10 are being cared for.
The foster care agencies are trying to help the children contact their parents, offering to take collect calls, but it seems the detained parents in Texas aren’t being allowed to place calls.
Governor Cuomo is none too happy and is trying to get more info from HHS.
"The state has a right to know what's going on in those foster care agencies," Cuomo said.
Cuomo said he hadn't received any response from HHS by Thursday afternoon. Messages left with the agency weren't immediately returned.”