Causing
'Profound' Trauma, Trump Administration Detained Record-Breaking 70,000
Children in 2019
A young migrant girl sits on the
floor as her father, recently released from federal detention with other
Central American asylum seekers, gets a bus ticket at a bus depot on June 11,
2019, in McAllen, Texas. (Photo: Loren Elliott/AFP/Getty Images)
The U.S. held a record 69,550
migrant children in detention facilities in 2019, a Tuesday report from The
Associated Press and PBS Frontline found, leading to
major psychological and physiscal harm and lasting trauma.
"No other country held as many
immigrant children in detention over the past year as the United
States—69,550," said AP tech reporter Frank Bajak in a
tweet promoting his colleagues' work. "The physical and emotional scars
are profound."
The story lays out in excrutiating detail the
emotional pain of victims of President Donald Trump's child separation policy,
focusing on, among others, a Honduran father whose three-year-old daughter can
no longer look at him or connect with him after being separated at the U.S.
border and abused in foster care.
"I think about this trauma
staying with her too, because the trauma has remained with me and still hasn't
faded," the father told AP.
The 3-year-old Honduran girl was
taken from her father when immigration officials caught them near the border in
Texas in March 2019 and sent her to government-funded foster care.
The father had no idea where his daughter was for three panicked weeks. It was another month before a caregiver put her on the phone but the girl, who turned four in government custody, refused to speak, screaming in anger.
The father had no idea where his daughter was for three panicked weeks. It was another month before a caregiver put her on the phone but the girl, who turned four in government custody, refused to speak, screaming in anger.
"She said that I had left her
alone and she was crying," said her father during an interview with
the AP and Frontline at their home in
Honduras. "'I don't love you Daddy, you left me alone,'" she told
him. The father agreed to speak about their case on condition of anonymity for
safety reasons.
The AP/Frontline report also includes testimony from a number of teenagers who told their own harrowing tales.
"We can't allow this cruelty to
continue," Texas immigrant rights group RAICES said on Twitter.
The number of children held by the
U.S. in 2019 exceeded that of any other country.
"Donald Trump is a record
setting president," tweeted Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), a
frequent critic of the administration's immigration policies.
In a statement, Families Belong
Together chair Jess Morales Rocketto decried the abusive policies.
"The U.S. threw 70,000 children
into cages under Donald Trump's administration, detaining more children than
any other country in the world," said Rocketto.
Taken altogether, the children in
U.S. detention this year could fit into a football field.
The Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement is responsible for the welfare of
the children.
In a statement, HHS
spokesperson Mark Weber said that those concerned over the White House
policies "must give credit to the Office of Refugee Resettlement and the
shelter network staff for managing a program that was able to rapidly expand
and unify the largest number of kids ever, all in an incredibly difficult
environment." EDITOR'S NOTE: this "incredibly difficult environment" has been created entirely by Trump's heinous immigration policies. As for the "largest number of kids ever," is this something we are proud of? Are we attempting to get into the Guiness Book of Records? What is wrong with these people? - Will Collette
But critics of the White House and
HHS pointed out that the treatment of children by the administration as
reported prompts questions on abuse and called for Congressional action to end
the policy.
"Thousands have been
traumatized, ripped away from their families, and at least six children have
died preventable deaths in custody—all while the government lawyers argued they
weren't worthy of soap or toothbrushes," said Families Together's
Rocketto. "They cannot be trusted with the welfare of children and families—Congress
must act to end these abuses immediately."
NBC News reporter Leigh Ann Caldwell wondered if the U.S. would take any
responsibility for the grave harm it is doing to the victims of its border
policies.
"My question," tweeted
Caldwell. "Does the U.S. provide mental health services for separated
families who ask to be deported in order to reunite?"