Family Separation Has Scarred These Kids For Life (HuffPost)
One year after Trump’s zero tolerance immigration policy, HuffPost spoke to families who say their children are withdrawn, depressed and self-harming.
By Angelina Chapin Huffington Post
04/06/19 8:54am
One day after school in late March, 7-year-old Matías twisted colorful pipe cleaners into the
shape of handcuffs. He slid the sparkly blue and bright-green circles over his small wrists and held them out proudly, as his mom, Victoria, watched silently from the door of their small bedroom. “They grabbed my mom,” Matías said in a quiet voice, referring to immigration officials who shackled his mother. “Both her legs and her hands.”
A few minutes later, Matías tied a bright-pink pipe cleaner in a loop around his ankle, a toy version of the black ankle monitor his mom wears so that Immigration and Customs Enforcement can track her every step. Tears welled up in Victoria’s eyes as she thought about how being separated at the border more than 11 months ago continues to impact her son. “That’s the way I was treated,” said the 23-year-old from Guatemala, who requested HuffPost use pseudonyms and not reveal the family’s location, because of safety concerns related to her asylum claim. “He remembers everything.”
Matías is one of nearly 3,000 children who were taken from their parents under the Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy that was implemented a year ago on April 6 and ended in late June.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/family-separation-one-year-later_n_5ca4cda4e4b094d3f5c50ede
Worth reading the entire article.
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