美国国家公共电台 NPR Doctors Concerned About 'Irreparable Harm' To Separated Migrant Children

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The number of migrant children detained by the U.S. government alone is increasing. That's the result of a policy decision by the Trump¹ administration to separate children from their parents as the parents are prosecuted² for crossing the border. Hundreds of the kids affected³ are under age 13. So how's the policy affect them? Pediatricians and immigrant advocates warn that these separations can cause what they describe as toxic⁴ stress - disrupting a child's brain development and harming long-term health. NPR's Joel Rose reports.

JOEL ROSE, BYLINE⁵: Pediatricians in South Texas started sounding the alarm weeks ago when migrant shelters began filling up with younger children - kids who'd recently been separated from their parents after they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

COLLEEN KRAFT: I was contacted by several pediatricians in the area who were really concerned.

ROSE: Colleen Kraft is president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. At the urging of her colleagues, Kraft flew to Texas and visited a shelter in the Rio Grande Valley where she saw a young girl in tears.

KRAFT: She couldn't have been more than 2 years old - just crying and pounding and having a huge, huge temper tantrum. And this child was just screaming, and nobody could help her. And we know why she was crying. She didn't have her mother. She didn't have her parent who could sooth there and comfort her and take care of her.

ROSE: Kraft says the staff at the facility told her that federal regulations prevented them from touching⁶ or holding the child to soothe⁷ her. Shelter managers and other experts say there is no such rule. But Kraft says the confusion is just one reason why these shelters are not the right place for young children - especially kids who've fled some of the most dangerous countries on Earth and who've just been separated from their parents.

KRAFT: By separating parents and children, we are doing irreparable harm to these children. The long-term concern of what we call toxic stress is that brains are not developed efficiently⁸ or effectively. And these children go on to have behavior problems, to have long-term medical problems.

ROSE: Medical professionals, members of Congress and religious leaders are calling on the Trump administration to stop separating migrant families. They say it's leaving parents in a no-win situation - try to get asylum⁹ in the U.S. and risk being separated from their children or go back to the countries they fled.

ROBERT CAREY: It's a moral issue. It's an ethical¹⁰ issue. But I think it's also a significant logistical challenge.

ROSE: Robert Carey ran the Office of Refugee Resettlement under the Obama administration. The agency is charged with caring for these kids temporarily until they can be placed with sponsors or foster families. It oversees¹¹ a network of about 100 shelters in 14 states. Until now, the vast majority of the migrant children in those shelters - more than 80 percent - were teenagers. Many arrived at the border on their own, and they knew what to expect. They would spend a month or two in a shelter before being placed with a relative in the U.S. - often their own parents. But Carey says the number of kids under 13 is growing.

CAREY: Given the trends that we're seeing, the number of small children coming into care is only likely to increase.

ROSE: And these tender-age children, as the government refers to them, are coming to these shelters under very different circumstances than the teenagers who arrived at the border alone.

ANTAR DAVIDSON: Kids started appearing at the shelter who didn't, quote, unquote, "know the drill." They had just been separated from their parents, so they were experiencing an increased amount of trauma¹².

ROSE: Antar Davidson worked for Southwest Key, a nonprofit that operates more than two dozen shelters for migrant children from Texas to California. He quit this week because he says the shelter where he worked in Tucson, Ariz., didn't have the trained staff to handle the influx¹³ of younger, more traumatized children. The breaking point for Davidson came when he says he was asked to tell two siblings¹⁴, ages 6 and 10, that they couldn't hug each other.

DAVIDSON: They called me over the radio. And they wanted me to translate to these kids that the rule of the shelter is that they are not allowed to hug. And these are kids that had just been separated from their mom - basically just cuddling and hugging each other in a desperate attempt to remain together.

ROSE: Southwest Key says they have a clear policy that allows touching and hugging in certain circumstances. Alexia Rodriguez is the company's vice¹⁵ president of immigrant children services. She says these are licensed¹⁶ facilities that are adequately staffed and have worked for years with migrant children - many of them traumatized.

ALEXIA RODRIGUEZ: We love the kids. We have experienced staff to provide comfort, counseling and help the child feel more comfortable.

ROSE: You're telling me that it's absolutely OK to hug them?

RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. I was at one of our shelters last week that has babies and preschoolers. And I walked around holding a baby the entire time I was there. And that's what you would see.

ROSE: The Office of Refugee Resettlement says there are more than 11,000 children in its shelters. Almost half of them are in facilities run by Southwest Key, including several hundred who are 12 or younger. Alexia Rodriguez says Southwest Key is preparing for hundreds more to arrive by adding beds and hiring more staff. Joel Rose, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF D&Z'S "BEAUTY")

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 prosecuted   

a.被起诉的

参考例句：

• The editors are being prosecuted for obscenity. 编辑因刊载污秽文字而被起诉。
• The company was prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety Act. 这家公司被控违反《卫生安全条例》。

3 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

4 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

7 soothe   

v.安慰；使平静；使减轻；缓和；奉承

参考例句：

• I've managed to soothe him down a bit.我想方设法使他平静了一点。
• This medicine should soothe your sore throat.这种药会减轻你的喉痛。

8 efficiently   

adv.高效率地，有能力地

参考例句：

• The worker oils the machine to operate it more efficiently.工人给机器上油以使机器运转更有效。
• Local authorities have to learn to allocate resources efficiently.地方政府必须学会有效地分配资源。

9 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

10 ethical   

adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的

参考例句：

• It is necessary to get the youth to have a high ethical concept.必须使青年具有高度的道德观念。
• It was a debate which aroused fervent ethical arguments.那是一场引发强烈的伦理道德争论的辩论。

11 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

12 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

13 influx   

n.流入，注入

参考例句：

• The country simply cannot absorb this influx of refugees.这个国家实在不能接纳这么多涌入的难民。
• Textile workers favoured protection because they feared an influx of cheap cloth.纺织工人拥护贸易保护措施，因为他们担心涌入廉价纺织品。

14 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

15 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

16 licensed   

adj.得到许可的v.许可，颁发执照(license的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• The new drug has not yet been licensed in the US. 这种新药尚未在美国获得许可。
• Is that gun licensed? 那支枪有持枪执照吗？