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Children violence

Trauma to children by separating them from parents at the immigration border

Begimai Nuranova

12 grade ELA elective

Mr.Janosh

11/30/18
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Children violence

‘They told us to behave or we’d have to stay there forever.’ Michael E Miller speaks to

the immigrant children who are still suffering the trauma of the Donald Trump’s separation

policy after finally being reunited with their families (Miller). Immigration service causes for one

of the big injury, trauma for children. Every child wants to be safe and protected with hopes for a

bright future with their parent and without separating them from the parents. This issue has

caused huge problems for children who get traumatized because of unfair immigration laws. In

order to stop this violence parents must know in what way they are going to and what risk they

will face. The idea of punishing parents who are trying to save their children's lives, and

punishing [children] for being brought to safety by their parents by separating them, is

fundamentally cruel and un-American.

“I felt like a prisoner,” says Diogo De Olivera Filho, a nine-year-old from Brazil who

spent five weeks at a shelter in Chicago, including three weeks in isolation after getting

chickenpox. When he got lonely and left his quarantined room to see other kids, he says the

shelter put up a gate to keep him in. “I felt like a dog,” he says (Filho). Separation from family

leaves children more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, no matter what the care setting. He

felt like a dog, it’s one of the most catastrophic feeling for children who didn’t know what going

on. This is what happens inside children when they are forcibly separated from their parents.

Their heart rate goes up. Their body releases a flood of stress hormones such as adrenaline.

Between October 1, 2017 and May 31, 2018, at least 2,700 children have been split from
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their parents. 1,995 of them were separated over the last six weeks of that window — April 18 to

May 31 — indicating that at present, an average of 45 children is being taken from their parents

each day . It's not clear how many teenagers are inside, but the government was planning to

expand it to hold some 4,000 detained minors (Dara). Once a child has entered the shelter

system, there is no firm process to determine whether they have been separated from someone

who was legitimately their parent, or for reuniting parents and children who had been mistakenly

separated.They require that migrant children be placed in "the least restrictive environment" or

sent to live with family members. They also limit how long families with children can be

detained; courts have interpreted that limit as 20 days. It indicates the traumatic effect

physiologically—not just to child psyche or emotions, but physiologically traumatic—of

removing a child from their parents. Children more than anybody need a variety of senses and

textures to experience. They need a variety of things to look at: sunshine, daylight, moonlight. It

helps develop a healthier child. It’s deprivation to me.

Experts warn that many of these children may be deeply traumatised by their experiences.

Their voices have seldom been heard during the frenzied debate over family separation (Sandy).

When Victor turned 11 at the shelter, his mother called from a detention centre in Eloy, Arizona,

and sang him the Latino birthday song, “Las Mananitas”. “When my mom sang to me,” he says,

“I was crying because it was the first time that we didn’t celebrate my birthday together “

(Victor). Person don’t believe the brain is fully developed until you’re 25. If you think about

what’s going on from the ages of 10 to 17, specifically about identity, stability is so important
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during those years. It’s really a big deal—it’s a big deal, physiologically. Having a secure

attachment to a parent is a big deal.

Congress can change the rules so the Flores consent decree will no longer apply, and it

can appropriate more money for family shelters at the border. This is an obvious thing to do that

would eliminate the tension between enforcing our laws and keeping family units together. The

Trump administration is throwing as many resources as it can at the border to expedite the

process, and it desperately wants the Flores consent decree reversed. Despite some mixed

messages, if the administration had its druthers, family units would be kept together and their

cases settled quickly (Dara). We talk about human rights and all that kind of stuff as a country.

We’re humans, so how do we treat each other more humanely? A segment of people may not

want immigrants here, but you know—what role should we play? What does it say on the Statue

of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor”?

"The government provides absolutely no tools to these families to try and reunite them.

They separate them and make no sort of effort or feel any sort of responsibility about making

sure either party knows where the other is," Lopez said. The option that both honors our laws and

keeps family units together is a swift return home after prosecution. But immigrant advocates

hate it because they want the migrants to stay in the United States. If people are fleeing

horrendous conditions in their home countries, they’ll still try to find safety. It’s a cost-benefit

analysis. The potential benefit of gaining asylum for both them and their children may be worth

the price of separation and even jail. The policy, now thankfully changed, would likely not have
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slowed down migration patterns.As someone who’s worked in immigration and criminal defense

for a long time, I point out that most immigrants are not the dangerous hombres the President

would have us believe. They’re like you and me — hardworking, motivated, looking for a better

life for themselves and their families. We all know immigrants, some of them undocumented.

Many of us have profited from their presence. They’re our gardeners, babysitters, house cleaners,

kitchen staff, fruit pickers, cement layers. The list goes on and on. Most of them came here for

one reason — to find work, send money back home and escape the vicissitudes of their own

country.

Separating children from their parents without a solid strategy to find and reunite them is

not just stupid, it’s embarrassing. Yes, U.S. citizens who commit crime are sometimes separated

from their children, but rarely for the low-level crimes those entering the border without

permission are accused of committing. And U.S. children often have another waiting family

member to take them.

Because separating children from their families at border crossings is cruel and traumatic,

immigration service must stop this violence, there still 2700 children have been split from their

parents.
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Conclusion
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Work cited

Dara Lind, “The Trump administration’s separation of families at the border, explained”

Jun 15, 2018, 12:03 pm EDT

https://www.vox.com/2018/6/11/17443198/children-immigrant-families-separated-parents

Saara Ferguson, “Separating migrant children from their parent is wrong”

https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/separating-migrant-children-their-families-wrong/34425, June

18,2018

Michael E Miller. “How children are still suffering the trauma of Trump’s family

separation policy”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/trump-children-separation-immigrant-

families-trauma-us-border-a8455826.html , Saturday 21 July 2018 23:00

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June 18, 2018

https://www.unicefusa.

org/stories/separating-

migrant-children-their-

families-

wrong/34425Separating
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Migrant Children From

Their Families Is Wrong

Separating Migrant

Children From Their

Families Is Wrong
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Separating Migrant

Children From Their

Families Is Wrong

Sarah Ferguson

Sarah Ferguson
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Sarah Ferg