While it had always been clear that the previous administration’s family separation policy at the southern border would result in enduring trauma, the first-ever qualitative analysis of the mental health effects of the “zero tolerance” policy has confirmed it in black and white.
This new study, released by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), has found that children who were kidnapped from their parents by the previous administration continued to meet criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) a year after reunification. One child, an 8-year-old boy, continued to meet criteria for PTSD, as well as separation anxiety disorder, two years after reunification.
The study findings, published in the peer-reviewed PLOS One journal, “identified symptoms and behaviors consistent with trauma and its residual effects in nearly all of the parents and children. These symptoms were present at the time of the family separation as well as the time of the examination post-reunification,” including “feelings of confusion, general upset to severely depressed mood, constant worry/preoccupations, frequent crying, difficulty sleeping, difficulty eating (loss of appetite), recurring nightmares, and overwhelming anxiety.
“The asylum-seekers also reported physiological manifestations of anxiety and panic (racing heart, shortness of breath, and headaches) as well as experiencing ‘pure agony,’ emotional and mental despair, hopelessness, and being ‘incredibly despondent,’” the report continued.
Parents similarly reported sustained trauma. “Trauma exposure in adults can manifest physically as well as psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually,” the report said. Throughout the previous administration’s family separation crisis, parents noted how their children were ripped from their arms without so much as a chance to say goodbye. In other stances, immigration officials lied to parents in order to take their children.
“Three of the 19 parents also experienced suicidal thoughts while separated from their children,” the report continued.
“Clinician experts from PHR’s U.S. Asylum Program analyzed 31 medico-legal affidavits of children or parents who faced forced family separation while seeking asylum in the United States between July 26, 2018 and December 14, 2019,” a release said. PHR’s landmark 2020 report said the policy rose “to the level of torture,” further calling it a form of enforced disappearance, “which is prohibited under international law in all circumstances.”
“In all cases documented by PHR, there was a period where parents were unaware of their children’s whereabouts, were not able to contact them and had no assurance of, or timeline for, eventual contact or reunification,” the 2020 report said. “Parents who asked U.S. officials about the wellbeing and whereabouts of their children were not given answers for weeks and months at a time. The concealment and lack of contact points to the crime of enforced disappearance.”
Yet not one single high-level official with the previous administration, including noted racists Stephen Miller and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, have been held accountable. Sessions, in fact, refused to testify in the Justice Department inspector general’s investigation into the policy. Internal notes documented Sessions telling U.S. attorneys that “we need to take away children.”
“This analysis shows the trauma and agony endured by parents and children who were forcefully separated from one another, and the compounding toll that trauma takes on both mental and physical health, lingers with these individuals for weeks, months and years after they’ve been reunited,” PHR senior medical adviser and study co-author Dr. Ranit Mishori said. “The forced family separation policy violated human rights, and resulted in severe and long-lasting psychological harm among children and parents who have already faced life-threatening risks in their home countries that have forced them to seek safety in the United States.
“As the Biden administration seeks to remedy this atrocious policy, these long-standing impacts must be considered,” Mishori continued.
The previous administration was forced under court order to provide free mental health services to victims of the policy as part of a groundbreaking decision. Government watchdog reports have found that officials ignored warnings from career staff about the traumatic effects of separation on children in particular. The Biden administration’s Justice Department has also been in negotiations with families that sued the federal government, with Republicans seeking to block possible settlements resulting from those talks.
This new study, released by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), has found that children who were kidnapped from their parents by the previous administration continued to meet criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) a year after reunification. One child, an 8-year-old boy, continued to meet criteria for PTSD, as well as separation anxiety disorder, two years after reunification.
The study findings, published in the peer-reviewed PLOS One journal, “identified symptoms and behaviors consistent with trauma and its residual effects in nearly all of the parents and children. These symptoms were present at the time of the family separation as well as the time of the examination post-reunification,” including “feelings of confusion, general upset to severely depressed mood, constant worry/preoccupations, frequent crying, difficulty sleeping, difficulty eating (loss of appetite), recurring nightmares, and overwhelming anxiety.
“The asylum-seekers also reported physiological manifestations of anxiety and panic (racing heart, shortness of breath, and headaches) as well as experiencing ‘pure agony,’ emotional and mental despair, hopelessness, and being ‘incredibly despondent,’” the report continued.
Parents similarly reported sustained trauma. “Trauma exposure in adults can manifest physically as well as psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually,” the report said. Throughout the previous administration’s family separation crisis, parents noted how their children were ripped from their arms without so much as a chance to say goodbye. In other stances, immigration officials lied to parents in order to take their children.
“Three of the 19 parents also experienced suicidal thoughts while separated from their children,” the report continued.
“Clinician experts from PHR’s U.S. Asylum Program analyzed 31 medico-legal affidavits of children or parents who faced forced family separation while seeking asylum in the United States between July 26, 2018 and December 14, 2019,” a release said. PHR’s landmark 2020 report said the policy rose “to the level of torture,” further calling it a form of enforced disappearance, “which is prohibited under international law in all circumstances.”
“In all cases documented by PHR, there was a period where parents were unaware of their children’s whereabouts, were not able to contact them and had no assurance of, or timeline for, eventual contact or reunification,” the 2020 report said. “Parents who asked U.S. officials about the wellbeing and whereabouts of their children were not given answers for weeks and months at a time. The concealment and lack of contact points to the crime of enforced disappearance.”
Yet not one single high-level official with the previous administration, including noted racists Stephen Miller and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, have been held accountable. Sessions, in fact, refused to testify in the Justice Department inspector general’s investigation into the policy. Internal notes documented Sessions telling U.S. attorneys that “we need to take away children.”
“This analysis shows the trauma and agony endured by parents and children who were forcefully separated from one another, and the compounding toll that trauma takes on both mental and physical health, lingers with these individuals for weeks, months and years after they’ve been reunited,” PHR senior medical adviser and study co-author Dr. Ranit Mishori said. “The forced family separation policy violated human rights, and resulted in severe and long-lasting psychological harm among children and parents who have already faced life-threatening risks in their home countries that have forced them to seek safety in the United States.
“As the Biden administration seeks to remedy this atrocious policy, these long-standing impacts must be considered,” Mishori continued.
The previous administration was forced under court order to provide free mental health services to victims of the policy as part of a groundbreaking decision. Government watchdog reports have found that officials ignored warnings from career staff about the traumatic effects of separation on children in particular. The Biden administration’s Justice Department has also been in negotiations with families that sued the federal government, with Republicans seeking to block possible settlements resulting from those talks.