海角大神

After family separation: How to promote healing for migrant children?

Satsuki Ina doesn鈥檛 call them 鈥渋nternment camps.鈥� The Sacramento, Calif., family therapist has another word for the government facility where she was born seven decades ago.

鈥淲e were placed not in internment camps,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e were placed in concentration camps.鈥�

Dr. Ina and her family were victims of the US government鈥檚 forced removal and incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II. She was born in the Tule Lake Segregation Center in California, while her father was held in a camp in North Dakota. Her family was reunited only when she was two years old.

As a result of her experience, Ina, who specializes in community trauma, has quite a bit to say about the US government鈥檚 鈥渮ero-tolerance鈥� policy, enacted by the president in May and withdrawn on June 20. Under the policy, adult migrants attempting to cross the border at unauthorized locations were arrested and charged with illegal entry, a under US federal law. Their children were turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services and then housed in privately run facilities 鈥� variously referred to as 鈥�,鈥� 鈥�,鈥� and, yes, even 鈥�.鈥� There are currently more than 2,000 children in these facilities.

Pediatricians and psychologists have , saying that children involuntarily separated from their parents exhibit toxic stress, a physiological response to trauma that medical experts say lead to long-term challenges such as learning disabilities, depression, substance abuse, and a wide range of physical ailments.

In a CNN interview last week, Colleen Kraft, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, labeled the practice 鈥�.鈥� Now, as the听legal system takes its first steps to reunite the children with their parents per the in San Diego,听it鈥檚 worth asking what can be done to support these children going forward.听

鈥淭oxic stress is not a death sentence,鈥� says Hirokazu Yoshikawa, co-director of the at New York University, 鈥渁nd it鈥檚 not something that鈥檚 going to affect every single child.鈥�

Nevertheless, child development experts say that it鈥檚 critical that these children be returned to their families as soon as possible. 鈥淭he clock is ticking when it comes to toxic stress,鈥� says pediatrician Jack Shonkoff the director of Harvard University鈥檚 Center on the Developing Child and an authority on toxic stress. 鈥淭ime is our enemy right now. Every week that goes by, time is making things worse.鈥�

Shonkoff emphasizes that the youngest children will be the most affected. 鈥淐onsciously they may not have memories at this point,鈥� he says, 鈥渂ut the body doesn鈥檛 forget.鈥�

鈥淣ot everybody is going to need a whole lot of help, but some kids and families are, and we have a responsibility to provide that,鈥� says Dr. Shonkoff, who suggests that the children be evaluated by child development experts at the time of their reunion. 鈥淭his can't just be done by border guards or our courts.鈥�

Dr. Yoshikawa says that, once the children are reunited with their families, they would benefit most from a return to comforting routines. 鈥淭his is particularly important for reestablishing what might have been disruptions to attachment,鈥� he says, 鈥渢he kinds of everyday things that we take for granted, but which were interrupted and completely absent during this time, which are bedtime routines, or feeding routines, or play routines.鈥�

But reestablishing this kind of stability can be a challenge for migrant families. Many of these children will likely remain in the United States while their parents await their trials and serve out their sentences. Others may return to the so-called Northern Triangle countries 鈥� Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador 鈥� where violence is endemic.

鈥淢aking sure that children are reintegrated or integrated into school, into peer activities, to all the kind of normal aspects of childhood are really what we鈥檇 want to see,鈥� Yoshikawa says, 鈥渂ut that鈥檚 actually very difficult to do when the family continues to live in fear.鈥�

Longer term, the children would greatly benefit from an official acknowledgement that what was done to them was morally wrong, says Ina.

鈥淚f you鈥檙e hated, and that message comes across if you鈥檙e in prison, even though you haven鈥檛 done anything,鈥� she says, 鈥渢hat gets internalized by a child.鈥�

Ina says that she has carried the trauma from her experience through her whole life.听But the US government鈥檚 official apology, , marked a step toward recovery, she says. 鈥淲hen the government acknowledged that they had they had committed a terrible mistake, that what they had done was wrong, that鈥檚 when people started talking about what happened.鈥�

Ina suggests that incarcerated migrant children today could benefit from a similar admission of wrongdoing. 鈥淚f there is acknowledgement that the child is not at fault,鈥� 听she says, 鈥渢hat this was a terrible thing that had happened to them, the empathy for the child is is going to be an important part of their healing.鈥�