COMMENTARY: Don’t make children pay the price for adult decisions

In a recent two-week period, 658 children were forcibly separated from their parents at the border; since April, at least 2,000 children have been separated from their parents or guardians.

In her visit to a shelter for unaccompanied children run by the Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Colleen Kraft, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, shared the story of a toddler she met at a shelter. The child was crying uncontrollably after being taken from her mother at the border. While we may be meeting the basic needs for food, shelter and medical care for children in these shelters, it is important to know that any time children are separated in this way from parents or guardians, it causes trauma which leaves lifelong scars. Even after they are reunited, this type of trauma can linger and impact children for years to come.

At Dayton Children’s Hospital, our experts are well aware of the increasing body of pediatric brain research that has shown the serious impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on a child’s lifelong wellbeing. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), ACEs are linked to a wide range of health and social consequences for children including risky health behaviors, chronic health conditions, low life potential and early death.

All of these children have already been exposed to difficult and harmful conditions prior to reaching the border, as many of their families were fleeing violence. This practice has added to their victimization and we are concerned that these children are also not likely to have access to the types of pediatric mental health services needed to deal with this type of trauma.

For those of us who care about and for kids every day, we can never support practices that tear families apart — even temporarily — and we must ensure that this type of practice never happens again. We must err on the side of what is right for children.

Thoughtful and well-meaning people can continue to debate our country’s immigration policy, but children should never be made to pay the price for the decisions of adults.

To us this isn’t about Republicans or Democrats – it’s about standing up for children. We were heartened and proud when both U.S. senators from Ohio, Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman, spoke out against the child separation practices at the border. Although we were relieved that President Trump signed an executive order to end the separation of families at the U.S. border, we remain extremely concerned about those children that have already been separated from their families. To minimize the long-term impact this policy has had on these children, it is critical that our government find a way to reunite them with their families as quickly as possible.

For those of us who care about and for kids every day, we can never support practices that tear families apart — even temporarily — and we must ensure that this type of practice never happens again. We must err on the side of what is right for children.