Study Shows: Children In Immigration Detention Centers Are More Susceptible To Psychological Trauma

Jacqueline Pinedo
Sep 4, 2018 · 2 min read

Displacement and family separation cause lifelong trauma to children’s developing brains.

GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP/Getty Images

There are still 537 children in immigration detention centers across the U.S. who have not been reunited with their parents and according to experts this strongly increases children’s vulnerability to long term psychological and mental health issues.

On Tuesday, July 26 U.S. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw ordered the Federal U.S. Government to reunite immigrant children with their families within 30 days. The deadline expired July 26 and the Federal U.S. government failed to reunite all children with their families.

Jacob Sobroff, MSNBC corespondent posted on Twitter that, “Parents of 322 of those kids [children still in detention center] have already been deported [and] 22 of the still-separated kids are under 5 years old.”

In a recent study done by The British Journal of Psychiatry, it was discovered that immigrants and refugees who experience displacement and separation are more inclined to suffer from anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, depression and suicidal ideation.

Founder of Circle of Health International, Sera Fonds told the Rolling Stones in a recent interview that trauma lives in our bodies.

“When kids live their whole lives under stress, they come into adulthood less healthy than other people,” said Fonds.

Children under the age of five are more susceptible to both health issues and brain development disorders.

Esquire interviewed Ragan Schriver, PsyD, director of the Social Work program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville where he explains how the brain doesn’t fully develop until we are 25.

“If you think about what’s going on from the ages of 10 to 17, specifically about identity, stability is so important during those years.” Schriver told Esquire. “It’s really a big deal — it’s a big deal, physiologically. Having a secure attachment to a parent is a big deal.”

The negative implications being inflicted on immigrant children by the U.S. Federal Government is being strongly criticized by people all around the world.

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