Skip to main content

Advertising Disclaimer »

Main menu

  • Journals
    • Pediatrics
    • Hospital Pediatrics
    • Pediatrics in Review
    • NeoReviews
    • AAP Grand Rounds
    • AAP News
  • AAP Policy
    • Topic/Program Collections
    • Policy
  • Pediatric Collections
    • COVID-19
    • Racism and Its Effect on Pediatric Health
    • More Collections...
  • Multimedia
    • Video Abstracts
    • Pediatrics On Call Podcast
  • Alerts
    • Table of Contents
    • Insights
  • AAP Career Center
  • Subscribe
  • Other Publications
    • American Academy of Pediatrics

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
American Academy of Pediatrics

AAP Gateway

Advanced Search

AAP Logo

  • Log in
  • My Cart
  • Journals
    • Pediatrics
    • Hospital Pediatrics
    • Pediatrics in Review
    • NeoReviews
    • AAP Grand Rounds
    • AAP News
  • AAP Policy
    • Topic/Program Collections
    • Policy
  • Pediatric Collections
    • COVID-19
    • Racism and Its Effect on Pediatric Health
    • More Collections...
  • Multimedia
    • Video Abstracts
    • Pediatrics On Call Podcast
  • Alerts
    • Table of Contents
    • Insights
  • AAP Career Center
  • Subscribe

AAP renews call for an end to family separation at the border

Melissa Jenco, News Content Editor
January 18, 2019

The Academy is renewing its call for an end to family separation at the southern border following a new report showing thousands more children were separated than previously reported.

“Children didn’t ask to be born in a country where they had to flee because of violence and fear,” said AAP Immediate Past President Colleen A. Kraft, M.D., M.B.A., FAAP. “We need to treat children with compassion and respect. This means not separating them from their parents. This means not keeping them in detention. This means having pediatric guidance and medical professionals to care for them when they are in United States custody.”

Under a June 2018 court order, government officials identified 2,737 children in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). However, a new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) shows there was a spike in family separations a year earlier, prior to authorities announcing a zero-tolerance policy for illegal border crossings and publicly acknowledging these prosecutions would result in family separations.

“HHS officials estimate thousands of other children were separated, referred to HHS for care and released from HHS care prior to the June court order,” Ann Maxwell, OIG assistant inspector general for evaluation and inspections, said Thursday.

However, she said HHS does not have an exact count because it lacks a formal tracking system.

The news was not surprising to Dr. Kraft, who visited the border in April 2018 after hearing from local pediatricians that children were being separated from their parents.

She saw firsthand the toll of children living in shelters and not knowing when they’d see their parents again. Those experiences can cause toxic stress, which damages developing brains and leads to both short- and long-term health impacts, she said. In recent months, two children died while in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody. The AAP has called for pediatric medical experts to have access to the facilities and repeatedly offered its assistance.

“Children have unique medical and mental health needs and care under the guidance of a pediatric professional is important,” Dr. Kraft said. “First and foremost, their security needs — being with a parent or a loving, trusted adult — is foundational to their physical and mental health.”

Since the June 2018 court order, at least 118 additional children have been separated from their parents at the border, but data on the reasons for the separations are limited. HHS officials say they have improved their system for tracking these children, but Maxwell was cautious in her assessment.

“At this point, it is not yet clear whether these changes will be sufficient to ensure accurate data about separated children,” she said.

Dr. Kraft called for the children to be reunited with their parents and offered trauma-informed care. Families seeking asylum should be able to stay in a community-based setting instead of detention, she said.

The OIG plans to release additional reports this year on efforts to reunify families, ORR facilities’ screening of employees, security, responses to incidents in which children have been harmed, and its ability to meet children’s health needs.

Resources
  • AAP policy "Detention of Immigrant Children"
  • Immigrant Child Health Toolkit
  • AAP Council on Community Pediatrics Immigrant Health Special Interest Group
  • AAP News stories about immigration
Copyright © 2019 American Academy of Pediatrics

Advertising Disclaimer »

Download PDF
Email News Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on American Academy of Pediatrics.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
AAP renews call for an end to family separation at the border
(Your Name) has sent you a message from American Academy of Pediatrics
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the American Academy of Pediatrics web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
AAP renews call for an end to family separation at the border
Melissa Jenco
January 18, 2019
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Digital Edition Current Issue
  • Latest Daily News
  • Archives
  • Collections
  • Columns
  • Advertising
  • Subscribe to AAP News Magazine
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Statement
  • FAQ
  • Contact Us
  • 2021 AAP Journals Catalog
  • Pediatrics
  • Pediatrics in Review
  • Hospital Pediatrics
  • NeoReviews
  • AAP Grand Rounds
  • AAP Career Center
  • shopAAP
  • AAP.org
  • AAP News
  • Visit AAP News on Facebook
  • Follow AAP News on Twitter
American Academy of Pediatrics

© 2021 American Academy of Pediatrics