Child psychologist weighs in on effects of family separation at the border

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday ending the process of separating children from families after they are detained crossing the U.S. border illegally.

It was a dramatic turnaround for trump, who had been insisting, wrongly, that his administration had no choice but to separate families apprehended at the border because of federal law and a court decision.

Officials with Health and Human Services have said they were working to reunite families as soon as possible but provided no clear answers on how that was going to happen.

April Thomas, a child psychologist and professor at UTEP, said these children could have experienced significant psychological stress.

“Even a couple of months can be an eternity in terms of the parent/child relationship,” Thomas said. “When a child is exposed to this kind of severe stress it can lead to permanent changes in the way that the body reacts to stress in the future.”

Statistics released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection show more than 2,300 children have been separated from their families between May 5 – June 9 of this year.

“Especially for young children, being separated can damage the attachment relationship that they have with their parents. Attachment has consistently been found to be one of the best predictors of child outcome,” Thomas said.

Thomas said there could be irreparable damage done to these children when it comes to their relationship-building skills.

“When they are pulled away unexpectedly from their parents, this can really sever that bond that they have. This detachment can occur in as little as nine days so you can imagine how devastating these effects can be in the long term,” Thomas said.