US held record number of migrant kids in custody in 2019
1 / 8Migrant Children The TraumaIn this Aug. 23, 2019, photo, a Honduran father stands at his home in Comayagua, Honduras, after talking in an interview about being separated from his 3-year-old daughter at the border after traveling for weeks to seek asylum in the U.S. According to court records, his daughter was sexually abused in U.S. foster care. She was later deported and arrived back in Honduras withdrawn, anxious and angry. He fears their bond is forever broken.
"Early experiences are literally built into our brains and bodies," said Dr. Jack Shonkoff, who directs Harvard University's Center on the Developing Child. Earlier this year, he told Congress that"decades of peer-reviewed research" show that detaining kids away from parents or primary caregivers is bad for their health. It's a brain-wiring issue, he said.
"There was something there that made us feel desperate. It was freedom. We wanted to be free," he recalled."There was despair everywhere." What the little girl didn't, or couldn't, tell her dad was that another child in her foster home woke her up and began molesting her, according to court records. As the days passed, she began urinating on herself and seemed unable to eat or drink, a foster parent said in the records.
"For now we're going to try to give her more affection, more love and then if there isn't a change we're going to try to find some help," he said. In the September issue of the journal Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatrics says migrant children who are detained"face almost universal traumatic histories." The group recommends specific therapies to help children recover and reunite with their families, warning of serious consequences if left untreated. But few of the thousands of children separated from their parents are receiving therapy after being deported back to Central America.
This year President Donald Trump signed a law approving $2.8 billion for the government to house, transport and care for migrant children. Nine out of 10 come from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, with fewer than 3% from Mexico. They're fleeing Central America often to save their own lives, because violence and abuse, even murder, are committed with impunity under corrupt governments the U.S. has supported for decades.
"I was a refugee, I know what they have gone through," said Negash, who fled Ethiopia alone as a teen after his country was thrown into chaos by a military coup.
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US held record number of migrant kids in custody in 2019The Trump administration had nearly 70,000 migrant children in custody this year. They are sent to 170 shelters where mental health experts say they risk being exposed to trauma that can cause lifelong problems. Read more from AP & frontlinepbs.
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US held record number of migrant kids in custody in 2019The U.S. had nearly 70,000 migrant children in custody this year, a record number at risk for trauma that can cause continuing physical and emotional problems even after reaching their families. More from AP & frontlinepbs.
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US held record number of migrant kids in custody in 2019The Trump administration had nearly 70,000 migrant children in custody this year. They are sent to 170 shelters where mental health experts say they risk being exposed to trauma that can cause lifelong problems. Read more from AP & frontlinepbs.
Read more »
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