No Tolerance Act and Immigration
During the semester one of our classmates brought up the topic of the No Tolerance Act at the border and further stated that the separation of families was allowing thousands of children to go through traumatic events when being separated from family members. I decided that for my blog I was going to investigate more on the issue of immigration and family inflicted trauma because when I was young my family also migrated to the United States as so did my older brother and I. The journey was not as complicated as the stories that have been reported but none the less did require that we be separated from my parents for span of three years.
Now in our textbook, “The Body Keeps Score,” Van Der Kolk states that when children become frighten or go through a traumatic event their first reaction is to seek protection and comfort from a trusted adult. If the child is denied access to said adult recovery from the even could be prolonged and cause further damage (Van Der Kolk, B. M.D. (2014).). When the Trump administration started separating children from their parents there were reports that many of the children were found multiple nights crying out for their parents. In the article titled “Family separation under ‘zero-tolerance’ policy could leave lasting trauma in children, pediatric doctor says,” Dr. Colleen Kraft who visited the children being held in detention centers stated that the majority of the children were being impacted by toxic stressors, the longer the child was exposed to these stressors the bigger the impact it had on the continual development of the child. Although it was reported that children were reunited with their families after the No Tolerance Act was lifted the damage done by the toxic stressors remain so much that there were reports that some of the children that were reunited felt anger toward their parents due to the fact that their minds associated the separation with abandonment.
Now why is this an important topic to address? Because even though it is important to protect the United States from potential terrorist attacks and criminals there has to be a humane process that both officers and the country have to follow to ensure that innocent children don’t pay the price. I understand that some will say “well this is a situation that the parents have chosen to put their children through,” and I respect those with their opinion however as well learned when studying trauma and the holocaust we really cannot judge the actions of others as we do not know the situation that brought them to break the law and take their children with them. The only side that we know is the one that has been reported to us by the Government and the media and surely the information given through them only paints one side of the picture the side that is missing is that of those that have chosen to cross the border and risk their lives.
Now I would be lying if I told you I knew the solution to fixing the immigration system because I don’t. Honestly, to this day I still remember what one of my government teachers said to me when I criticized how political parties kept passing the issue back and forth and that is that one can’t truly fix a broken system. What is broken is broken the only solution would be getting rid of the current system and building a new one however that would only put others hopes and dreams on hold and others in complete desperation as some are currently in therefore a bullet proof solution would be hard to create.
Reference
Family separation under ‘zero-tolerance’ policy could leave lasting trauma in children, pediatric doctor
says. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-06-19/family-separation-under-
zero-tolerance-policy-could-leave-lasting-trauma-children
Van Der Kolk, B. M.D. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score. Brain, Mind, and Body In the Healing of
Trauma. New York, NY. Penguin Books.