President Trump just signed an executive order halting his administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents. The reversal came after days of public outcry over the practice. In fact, many in the medical community were some of President Trump’s loudest critics. Read on to see what these healthcare organization and providers had to say about the immigration policy:
The American Nurses Association “adamantly opposes the Administration’s policy and practices toward migrants and asylum seekers that result in the forcible separation of children from their families. These actions put the welfare of immigrant children at risk and are causing irreparable harm, such as negative physical and emotional symptoms from separation and detention, including anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.”
John Hopkins School of Nursing’s Deborah Gross wrote in an op-ed piece that, “Children should not be used to punish families. Governmental organizations, including Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have crafted clinical guidelines to address toxic stress. Nurses can and must use these guidelines to permanently shift this culture of punishment, which is clearly unhealthy, to a culture of humanitarianism that promotes health.”
American Academy of Pediatrics President Colleen A. Kraft, said in a press release: “Separating children from their parents contradicts everything we stand for as pediatricians — protecting and promoting children’s health. The new policy is the latest example of harmful actions by the Department of Homeland Security against immigrant families, hindering their right to seek asylum in our country and denying parents the right to remain with their children.”
National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners stated that the policy, “has the potential to cause significant, lifelong harm to the children involved. We urge immigration officials to use the quickest means possible to determine family relationships, immediately cease separation of children from their families, and reunite those who have been separated to date. This call to action includes families seeking asylum or immigrating.”
American Public Health Association called the policy a public health crisis: “This practice places children at heightened risk of experiencing adverse childhood events and trauma, which research has definitively linked to poorer long-term health. Negative outcomes associated with adverse childhood events include some of society’s most intractable health issues: alcoholism, substance misuse, depression, suicide, poor physical health and obesity.”