Nowhere are the cruel and deplorable actions of the Trump administration more outstanding than in the abhorrent conditions of immigration detention facilities holding children and families. Yesterday, in a powerful House Oversight Committee hearing, Yazmin Juárez bravely gave a heartbreaking testimony of the death of her one year old daughter weeks after being released from ICE custody. Watch MSNBC’s Chris Hayes segment on Yazmin’s brave testimony here.
Just months before her second birthday, Mariee’s death serves as a staunch reminder of the humanitarian crisis happening in our midst, while the Trump administration pushes forward on a path of deliberate cruelty and neglect inflicting unruly pain and suffering on thousands of immigrant families.
In a new clinical study by Mount Sinai Human Rights Project, the study finds that detention and family separation inflicts a terrible toll on the mental and emotional health of children. According to the study “Of the 150 children who completed the PTSD-RI [a screening for PTSD], 17% had a probable diagnosis of PTSD. In all, nearly half (44%) of all children demonstrated at least one emotional or behavioral concern.”
According to Pili Tobar, Deputy Director of America’s Voice: “Mariee, like other children who lost their lives at the hands of the Trump administration and/or who are in detention still away from their parents in terrible conditions, should be with her mother, alive, healthy, prospering, and free of violence and persecution. Instead, her mother Yazmin left the hospital on Mother’s Day with nothing but a slip of paper with Mariee’s pink hand prints, and then yesterday gave the most heartbreaking testimony in front of Congress to ensure that no other family or child has to go through what she and Mariee went through.
“Immigrant families and children are paying the price for the Trump administration’s politically calculated cruelty. Lives are being lost, and children and families are suffering trauma and long term damage, as Trump continues to ignore the humanitarian crisis for his own political gain. This is truly a dark moment in our history, as we continue to see the ongoing effects of a President who chooses rallying for his reelection campaign over the care and humanity of children.”
