A leading pediatrician warned during a House committee hearing on the Trump administration’s barbaric “zero tolerance” policy of the devastating emotional and physical impact family separation can cause to children, no matter the length of time. One mother she met last summer said that her 8-year-old son was just “a shell of his previous self” following their separation.
“For seven days, this boy and his pregnant mother did not know about the other’s location or safety,” Dr. Julie Linton, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Immigrant Health Special Interest Group, testified during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Tuesday. “Their separation was shorter than many children harmed by the zero tolerance policy, and he still suffered the consequences.”
Now imagine children who were stolen from their parents at the border and have been kept separated for nearly a year. Just days ago, 6-year-old Ariel was reunited with his family after being separated from them for 10 months. While the boy was at first excited, video of their reunion shows he’s eventually overwhelmed with emotion. In a different reunification last year, mom “L.G.” said her daughter can no longer fall asleep unless she holds her. They were separated for nearly three months.
Hearings held by newly empowered House Democrats have continued to expose criminal abuses by the Trump administration, including confirmation that upper-level officials were warned about the harmful consequences of stealing children from their parents, but then ignored those warnings and stole them anyway. This is been state-sanctioned child abuse, and it will follow children into their adulthood and cause chronic diseases such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, Dr. Linton said.
“Toxic stress can disrupt a child’s brain architecture and adversely impact short- and long-term health,” she continued. “When little bodies are in a constant fight-or-flight response, stress hormones such as cortisol remain elevated, continuously activating the nervous system and suppressing the immune response. A critical role of a parent or known caregiver is to buffer stress. Separation from a parent robs children of this buffer.”
Citing the recent deaths of two migrant children in Customs and Border Protection custody, Dr. Linton warned that “children are not little adults. To untrained eyes, they can appear quite healthy, even when their systems begin to shut down.” Children separated under the zero tolerance policy remain in U.S. custody, months after a federal judge’s reunification deadline. Family separation remains a crisis.