As our country faces its first pandemic (COVID-19) since 2009, our nation’s long history of social injustices – systemic racism, poverty, and mass confinement, to name a few – is once again thrust into the spotlight. The stark reality is that our underserved communities are at grave risk. In recent weeks journalists across the country have brought to light the disparities faced by communities of color, immigrants, and prisoners.
What seems to be missing is a focus on children and families at the border. Without access to standard health care, nutritious food, or safe, affordable housing, they are left as prey to infectious disease outbreaks like COVID-19, on top of the grave developmental impacts that detaining such very young children has on the developing brain.
Back in 2018, when we were all paying attention to the lack of humanity provided to these children, the American Academy of Pediatrics was quick to highlight the long-term, irreversible negative impact that family separation would have on children’s developing brains due to the psychological trauma they endure and how this induces long-term physical and mental health issues.
More recently, a Physicians for Human Rights investigation, based on psychological evaluations of asylum-seeking parents and children who were separated by the U.S. government in 2018, stated that clinicians evaluated “children exhibiting reactions that included regression in age-appropriate behaviors, crying, not eating, having nightmares and other sleeping difficulties, loss of developmental milestones, as well as clinging to parents and feeling scared following reunification with their parents.”
Fast-forward two years and the border crisis continues to worsen. Despite the official end of the zero tolerance policy two years ago last month, hundreds of children have continued to be separated from their parents. Daily, parents are asked to make an impossible choice: Give up your parental rights, or choose for their child to be detained alongside them for an indefinite amount of time in dangerous living conditions. No parent should have to face this impossible choice.
A detention center is no place for adults or children to live. The time to advocate for new solutions is now.
At the southern border, a lack of basic care and inhumane conditions, including overcrowding, have created a breeding ground for the virus as evident in the rapid rise of cases of those in ICE’s custody. Detention centers, which hold refugees in large, open-floor cells with many sharing the same living area, toilet, showers, and sink, have become hotbeds for COVID-19 infections. To curb the pandemic, a public health order has been issued to swiftly deport unaccompanied migrant minors apprehended near the U.S.-Mexico border. Children are being summarily expelled and denied access to protections that have been afforded to them under U.S. law allowing border officials to bypass asylum, immigration, and anti-trafficking laws.
While the list is long of areas that need urgent attention, we must remember the voiceless families at the border and include them in our advocacy. We must urge Congress to provide a safe haven for refugees and release families together.
And if you’re hesitant to respond, ask yourself – what does it do to a very young child’s development to be cast aside at the border with no protection or comfort from caregivers?
Natalie Fellows is the marketing and communications director of First3Years, a statewide nonprofit whose mission is to educate, advocate, and collaborate to advance the healthy development of infants, toddlers, and their families.
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This article appears in August 7 • 2020.