Tag Archives: psychological/health effects of separating children

family separation repost V (individual stories of family separation under the Trump administration)

 

STORIES – family separation, etc

 

The downloadable Word document posted here (above) comprises a compilation by me of “horror stories” of immigrant children separated from their parents under the family separation policy that was implemented and carried out by the Trump administration from around July 2017 to January of this year as a means to deter immigration. The extent of this time frame takes into account that long after the policy was supposedly rescinded, in response to public pressure, many children remained separated from their parents, often because officials had never bothered to keep track of them.

The document posted here is 130 pages long.

 

— Roger W. Smith

   May 2020

family separation repost IV (editorials against the Trump administration’s family separation policy)

 

editorials – family separation

 

The downloadable Word document posted here (above) comprises a daily compilation by me of editorials and letters to the editor expressing opposition to the Trump administration’s family separation policy.

The document posted here is 148 pages long.

It is sad to contemplate how the issue (outrage) of family separation as a strategy to deter immigration seems to have faded from public consciousness in the past months, and has faded almost completely since the pandemic began. While this is understandable, it would seem, the children who suffered trauma and the parents unendurable emotional pain will not easily recover.

Many, in fact the majority, of the editorials which commenced in March 2017, are eloquent and have a Zola-esque quality.

 

— Roger W. Smith

   May 2020

family separation repost II (psychological damage and medical/health consequences of the trump administration’s family separation policy)

 

psychological and medical damage

 

The downloadable Word document posted here (above) focuses on the consequences of the Trump administration’s family separation policy, assessed from a psychological/medical point of view by experts on child development. Such consequences include trauma and impairment of the children’s psychological as well as neurological health and development.

It’s “a critical issue that transcends political ideology and partisanship,” in the words of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.

The document posted here, compiled by me, is 280 pages long. It includes statements by experts on child development and welfare as well as press reports addressing the issue.

Since the damage to the migrant children was not transitory or of limited duration, this is an issue which should not get swept under the rug and forgotten about as supposedly being of interest only as long as it was part of the news cycle.

 

— Roger W. Smith

   April 2020

family separation repost I (comments and statements by politicians, public figures, and ordinary citizens)

 

statements, comments

See downloadable Word document above.

 

I realize that my post about the Trump administration’s family separation policy and its impact upon families and the children torn from their parents is not going to get many readers. It consists of several documents covering different aspects of the policy and its tragic — indeed horrible — consequences. Most of the documents are very long and detailed.

What I have done, in essence, is produce a documentary, which is well worth reading. Rather than provide an overview of family separation under the Trump administration, I have provided a daily account of the policy as it was implemented and evolved (with terrible consequences): its implementation (at first in secret) by the Trump administration; developments as opposition to family separation mounted; individual stories of the children torn from their parents; what religious leaders and human rights officials said; the flood of anti-child separation editorials from summer 2018 on. I dug this information out of sundry sources.

Here is my compilation of statements against child separation made by politicians, public figures, religious and community leaders, and ordinary citizens in various publications and venues, ranging from the halls of Congress to student newspapers and Facebook posts.

 

Roger W. Smith

   July 2020