“They could be murderers and thieves and so much else,” the president said of the people crossing our southern border. “We want a safe country, and it starts with the borders, and that’s the way it is.”
That’s the way it is? Only if the American people allow it. And apparently we won’t. The president said Wednesday will rescind the forced family separations and instead seek to hold families in custody together.
Since Trump’s zero-tolerance policy has been in effect, 2,300 children have been taken from their parents. Decades of studies show childhood separations cause permanent emotional damage, Alicia Lieberman, who runs the Early Trauma Treatment Network at University of California, San Francisco, told The Associated Press.
“Their fear triggers a flood of stress hormones that disrupt neural circuits in the brain, create high levels of anxiety, make them more susceptible to physical and emotional illness, and damages their capacity to manage their emotions, trust people, and focus their attention on age-appropriate activities.”
Don’t believe her? Ask an elementary school teacher about the effects of trauma — like food insecurity, parental or guardian substance abuse and addiction, the tornadoes of 2016 — on their students.