In their haste to make things happen, governments fail to consider the unintended consequences that can be harmful to the community and to its citizens. There are thousands of children who are innocent bystanders who are at considerable risk to their health and emotional well-being because of theirimmigrant parents’ detention.
According to the Marshall Project, more than 3,800 children under 18 have been detained by ICE, including as many as 20 infants.
In interviews of detainees at the Dilley facility in Texas, a parent reported that she was denied bottled water to mix her child’s formula.
Drinking water is often undrinkable and unhealthy in these facilities, which can have serious consequences for an infant.
Detainees, including children, have
been given food contaminated with mold and worms.
There is nothing to occupy young children; no toys, no TV, no paper to draw on.
Interviewers documented cases where sick children have been denied medication. Children have limited opportunities to continue their education.
Children have been observed engaging in behaviors that are a clear sign of psychological distress, including wetting themselves even though potty trained and hitting themselves in the face repeatedly.
Joaquin Castro, a Texas Congressman, reported troubling interactions with children when he visited the Dilley facility.
Some children were crying and begging to go home. Others were numb, exhibiting nothing but vacant stares.
Childhood trauma can interfere with healthy development of the brain, thus interrupting cognitive development.
In a study by the NIH, separation from parents can interrupt the attachment between infants and caregivers that leads to lifelong problems of adjustment and subsequent disruptive behavior.
The damage done to these innocent children is irreparable without prompt psychological and medical help.
In the most severe cases children may develop reactive attachment disorder where children have difficulty with positive emotions, difficulty making eye contact and touch, and expressing frequent sadness and frequent rule breaking.
Children with this disorder are at risk of eating disorders, substance abuse, and risk taking later in life.
It is difficult to know what happens to children whose parents are detained while they are away at school or not accompanying their parents when arrested.
The Brookings Institute estimated approximately 145,000 American children whose parents have been detained.
The Trump administration does not keep data on these children who are left behind while their parents are being detained and deported.
Many of these children are at risk of experiencing the psychological trauma of abandonment.
One parent who was detained reported a child was placed with their pastor until arrangement could be made for its care.
Older siblings, who may be ill-equipped with the necessary maturity and resources, sometimes step up and take care of their younger siblings.
There are children who do not know where their parents have gone or when they will see them again.
Meantime the child may not have money for food, money if the rent or other bills are due and may end up with nowhere to go.
The sense of abandonment that a child may feel is traumatic with serious emotional costs. According to the CPTPSD Foundation, “The most egregious behaviors to do to a child is abandonment.”
The child is at risk of long-term problems of panic, low self-esteem, self-harm and other outcomes.
Contact your representatives and demand there be intervention for children caught in the middle of the immigration crisis.
Demand that resources be provided to meet these needs. The world does not need any more broken children. Nor children who grow up to be broken adults.
Frederick Douglas, in 1855, wisely stated: “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
We would be wise to follow his advice.
Charlotte Dunham of Lubbock is the Political Action Chair for Branch 6198 Lubbock County NAACP.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock NAACP chair says immigration crisis making lasting damage
