cpsylist: FW: PHR sign-on letter: Join PHR in Calling to End Family Separation and Keep Families Together

[Ellen McWhirter]

CPSY community,

The information below is from Physicians for Human Rights. I pasted their well-referenced letter at the bottom of this email. The content is very salient to counseling psychology and prevention science.

Best,
Ellen

*******************************************
Ellen Hawley McWhirter, Ph.D.
Ann Swindells Professor of Counseling Psychology
Director, Spanish Language Psych. Services & Research Specialization
Counseling Psychology Program
5251 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-5251
(541) 346-2443 (office)
(541) 346-6778 (fax)
https://education.uoregon.edu/users/emcwhirter

I support all students regardless of immigration status or country of origin. As a member of the UO Dreamers Working Group, I support Dreamer students and promote their sense of belonging and safety as they pursue their higher education goals. For more information and resources please visit our Dreamers page (https://blogs.uoregon.edu/dreamers/) and the Immigration FAQs page (http://international.uoregon.edu/immigration_faq ). Remember, when interacting with faculty, staff, and offices around campus you are never required to reveal your status.

From: Christiane Blanco-Oilar [mailto:dr.christiane.blanco at gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2018 3:29 PM
To: Ellen McWhirter <ellenmcw at uoregon.edu>
Subject: Fwd: PHR sign-on letter: Join PHR in Calling to End Family Separation and Keep Families Together


Please send the information below to UO CPSY student list serve if you feel it’s appropriate.  It’s urgent as deadline  is tomorrow . Session’s recent order to judges to block victims of DV and Gang violence from asylum will result in life threatening outcomes for millions . Thank you .

Dr. Christiane


Christiane Blanco-Oilar, Ph.D.
Licensed Psychologist
561-287-2088
www.DrChristianeBlancoOilar.com<http://www.DrChristianeBlancoOilar.com>

Begin forwarded message:
From: Kathryn Hampton <khampton at phr.org<mailto:khampton at phr.org>>
Date: June 11, 2018 at 6:15:00 PM EDT
To: Kathryn Hampton <khampton at phr.org<mailto:khampton at phr.org>>
Subject: PHR sign-on letter: Join PHR in Calling to End Family Separation and Keep Families Together
Dear Asylum Network members,

On behalf of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), I write to invite you to join colleagues in an urgent letter<https://secure.phr.org/secure/family-separation-sign-letter?MS=email_asylumletter_email1> addressed to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, expressing grave concerns about the administration’s harmful practice of separating migrant and asylum-seeking families at the U.S. border.

Please sign the letter here<https://secure.phr.org/secure/family-separation-sign-letter?MS=email_asylumletter_email1> to send a strong message from medical and mental health professionals about the traumatic long-term impact of this policy which violates rights of children and families.

The deadline for sign-on<https://secure.phr.org/secure/family-separation-sign-letter?MS=email_asylumletter_email1> is WEDNESDAY, 13 June, at noon EDT, with the goal of delivering it to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice later that day.

Please free feel to share this letter widely with colleagues or professional associations providing medical and mental health services who may wish to support this initiative.




[cid:image002.jpg at 01D401B0.1ADA8F30]


For any questions, please address:

Kathryn Hampton | Network Program Officer
Physicians for Human Rights
256 West 38th Street | 9th Floor | New York, NY 10018
Office: +1.646.564.3544 | Mobile: +1.516.503.3382
Skype: kathryn.hampton | khampton at phr.org<mailto:khampton at phr.org>

phr.org<http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/>
 June 13, 2018

Dear Secretary Nielsen and Attorney General Sessions:
As medical and mental health professionals and researchers working in the United States, we are gravely concerned about the Trump administration’s practice of separating migrant and asylum-seeking families at the U.S.-Mexico border. Such a practice is profoundly harmful to children and to families, in addition to violating fundamental human rights. We urge you to immediately end both forced separation and family detention, and instead keep families together in community-based settings while their immigration proceedings are pending.
The Trump administration has stated that its goal in separating children from their parents is to deter people from crossing the border between ports of entry. According to statements by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, this policy is intended to be punitive to serve as such deterrence.[i] President Trump has further characterized unaccompanied migrant children as “not innocent” and accused them of gaming the system.[ii] White House Chief of Staff and former Department of Homeland security secretary John Kelly stated, “Children will be put into foster care … or whatever,” a troubling sign of the lack of consideration given to the child welfare implications of this policy.[iii] Media reports indicate that government mechanisms for ensuring that parents and children are in contact and know each other’s whereabouts are non-functional.[iv]
Using children as leverage to punish their parents is unconscionable, both with respect to the health and well-being of children and as the treatment of migrants and asylum seekers. The right to family unity is enshrined in U.S.[v] and international law,[vi] which recognize that families are the foundation of society. The relationship of children and parents is the strongest social tie most people experience, and a threat to that tie is among the most traumatic events people can experience. Forced separation of children and parents, especially in connection with the detention of a parent, can constitute an adverse childhood experience (ACE). ACEs are linked with disrupted neurodevelopment, resulting in social, emotional, and cognitive impairment,[vii] and have even been linked with negative intergenerational effects.[viii] Extreme and repetitive stress --  known as toxic stress -- such as that experienced when a person is suddenly separated from parents, adversely affects brain development and is correlated with increased risk of developing chronic mental health conditions, such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and even physical conditions such as cancer, stroke, diabetes, and heart disease.[ix]
Separation from parents has been shown to be linked with higher rates of PTSD in the affected children.[x] For children, separation results in a low-support environment which places them at increased risk of PTSD and depressive disorders.[xi] The negative impact on the cognitive and emotional functioning of the affected children can continue into adulthood and contribute to lower academic achievement, attachment difficulties, and poor mental health.[xii]
Among refugees, one research study shows that individuals separated from their families had worse mental health outcomes in terms of depression, PTSD, and psychological quality of life than those who remained with their families, after controlling for trauma. After testing the contribution of 26 types of trauma to these outcomes, only the experience of being beaten and tortured had a similar impact on all three mental health measures as family separation.[xiii]
According to the new U.S. policy, children will be placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement in foster families. However, foster care is not an appropriate substitute for a child remaining with its parents, and studies of refugee children in foster care have shown that children fare worse when placed in foster families than with their parents.[xiv] Placing these children into foster care will put additional stress on the U.S. child welfare system and also set these children up for worsened health and social outcomes.[xv]
Children who seek asylum are fleeing extreme situations of violence, abuse, neglect, and threats of death in their countries of origin and are entitled to international protection. Refugee law explicitly prohibits the government from sending back anyone who will face persecution across the border. When an individual comes to the United States and states that they have a credible fear of persecution in their own country, the government is required to hear their case. Criminalizing border crossing and taking children away from their parents is tantamount to impeding the right to seek asylum, in violation of both U.S. and international law.[xvi]
Prioritizing the best interests of the child is the recognized legal standard for the treatment of children across a range of domains, including parental custody and immigration proceedings.[xvii] This standard requires that children not be separated from their parents except in extreme circumstances if required for the child’s protection.[xviii] Further, parents are a vital buffer for children coping with severe stress.[xix] A strong predictor of successful adaptation for children is family support.[xx] Separation from their parents denies these children this vital resource, leaving them alone to face extremely stressful and likely frightening conditions. It increases the risk that these children will experience severe and long-lasting psychological problems and may even contribute to the development of physical health issues.[xxi]
The United States should follow the “best interests of the child” standard and immediately stop the practice of forced separation and family detention. It should not be U.S. policy to traumatize children, and especially not as a form of indirect punishment of their parents. The intentional infliction of pain on children and their families is not just inhumane, it also fails to meet the stated goals of deterrence. Parents flee violence to keep their children safe from harm; punishing them with family separation may cause damage to their children, but it won’t change the realities that drove the parents to seek safe haven in the United States.
As experts committed to promoting health and well-being, including of children, we ask you to end the practice of family separation and insist that currently separated families be reunited without undue delay.

Sincerely,

[i] https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-sessions-delivers-remarks-discussing-immigration-enforcement-actions
[ii] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-warns-against-admitting-unaccompanied-migrant-children-theyre-not-innocent/2018/05/23/e4b24a68-5ec2-11e8-8c93-8cf33c21da8d_story.html
[iii] https://www.npr.org/2018/05/11/610116389/transcript-white-house-chief-of-staff-john-kellys-interview-with-npr
[iv] http://www.ktsm.com/news/local/el-paso-news/they-just-took-them-frantic-parents-separated-from-their-kids-fill-courts-on-the-border/1231367551
[v] See Ms. L v. ICE, Memo ISO Motion for Preliminary Injunction, A(2), pp. 8-10
[vi] See preamble to the International Convention Regulating the Status of Refugees; Article 17, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; Article 14 of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
[vii] Vincent J. Felitti, Robert Anda, et al, “Relationship of Childhood Abuse and Household Dysfunction to Many of the Leading Causes of Death in Adults: The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine (1998) 14(4); Debora L. Oh, et al, “Systematic Review of Pediatric Health Outcomes Associated with Adverse Childhood Experiences,” Pediatrics, January 2018, 141 (1 Meeting Abstract) 309; DOI: 10.1542/peds.141.1_MeetingAbstract.309.
[viii] Felice Le-Scherban, et al, “Intergenerational Associations of Parent Adverse Childhood Experiences and Child Health Outcomes,” Pediatrics, June 2018, 141 (6) e20174274; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2017-4274.
[ix] “Relationship of Childhood Abuse and Household Dysfunction to Many of the Leading Causes of Death in Adults,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 1998, Volume 14, pages 245 - 258.
[x] Geltman PL, Grant-Knight W, Mehta SD, et al, “The ‘lost boys of Sudan’: functional and behavioral health of unaccompanied refugee minors re-settled in the United States,” Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 2005; 159: 585–91.
[xi] Hodes, M. (2008), “Psychopathology in refugee and asylum seeking children.”
[xii] Bronstein, I., and Montgomery, P. (2011), “Psychological distress in refugee children: a systematic review,” Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev, 14(1), 44-56. doi:10.1007/s10567-010-0081-0
[xiii] Miller, Alexander, Hess, Julia Meredith, Bybee, Deborah, Goodkind, Jessica R, (2018), “Understanding the mental health consequences of family separation for refugees: Implications for policy and practice,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Vol 88(1), 2018, 26-37, http://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fort0000272
[xiv] Holtan A, Rønning JA, Handegård BH, Sourander A, “A comparison of mental health problems in kinship and nonkinship foster care,” European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 2005; 14(4): 200-207; Geltman PL, Grant-Knight W, Mehta SD, et al, “The ‘Lost Boys of Sudan’"
[xv] Ahrens, K. R., Garrison, M. M., & Courtney, M. E. (2014, “Health outcomes in young adults from foster care and economically diverse backgrounds,” Pediatrics, 134(6), 1067-1074; Dworsky, A., Napolitano, L., & Courtney, M. (2013, “Homelessness during the transition from foster care to adulthood,” American Journal of Public Health, 103(S2), S318-S323.
[xvi] 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, ratified by the United States in 1968 and incorporated into the domestic legal framework through the 1980 Refugee Act.
[xvii] Reno v Flores, 507 US 292, 303–304 (1993); Troxel v Granville, 530 US 57 (2000); See also Bridgette A. Caar (2009), "Incorporating a ‘Best Interests of the Child’ Approach Into Immigration Law and Procedure," Yale Human Rights and Development Journal: Vol. 12: Iss. 1, Article 3, available at: http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yhrdlj/vol12/iss1/3
[xviii] See Ms. L v. ICE, Memo ISO Motion for Preliminary Injunction, A(2), pp. 8-10.
[xix] Bowlby, J. (1988), “A secure base: Parent-child attachment and healthy human development,” New York: Basic Books; “Fostering resilience; protective agents, resources, and mechanisms for adolescent refugees’ psychosocial well-being,” Adolescent Psychiatry, 2014, Volume 4, Issue 4, pages 164-176.



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