The psychological impact of child separation at the US-Mexico border
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0:01 - 0:04For over 40 years, I've been
a clinical social worker -
0:04 - 0:06and a developmental psychologist.
-
0:06 - 0:10And it seemed almost natural
for me to go into the helping professions. -
0:10 - 0:14My parents had taught me
to do good for others. -
0:15 - 0:17And so I devoted my career
-
0:17 - 0:21to working with families
in some of the toughest circumstances: -
0:21 - 0:23poverty, mental illness,
-
0:23 - 0:26immigration, refugees.
-
0:27 - 0:30And for all those years,
I've worked with hope and with optimism. -
0:32 - 0:34In the past five years, though,
-
0:34 - 0:37my hope and my optimism
have been put to the test. -
0:38 - 0:43I've been so deeply disappointed
in the way the United States government -
0:43 - 0:47is treating families who are coming
to our southern border, -
0:47 - 0:49asking for asylum --
-
0:49 - 0:55desperate parents with children,
from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, -
0:55 - 0:58who only want to bring their kids
to safety and security. -
1:00 - 1:02They are fleeing some of
the worst violence in the world. -
1:02 - 1:04They've been attacked by gangs,
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1:05 - 1:08assaulted, raped, extorted, threatened.
-
1:09 - 1:10They have faced death.
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1:11 - 1:15And they can't turn to their police
because the police are complicit, -
1:15 - 1:17corrupt, ineffective.
-
1:17 - 1:20Then they get to our border,
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1:20 - 1:22and we put them in detention centers,
-
1:22 - 1:25prisons, as if they were common criminals.
-
1:28 - 1:33Back in 2014, I met some of
the first children in detention centers. -
1:35 - 1:36And I wept.
-
1:37 - 1:40I sat in my car afterwards and I cried.
-
1:41 - 1:44I was seeing some of the worst
suffering I'd ever known, -
1:45 - 1:48and it went against everything
I believed in my country, -
1:48 - 1:49the rule of law
-
1:50 - 1:52and everything my parents taught me.
-
1:55 - 2:00The way the United States
has handled the immigrants -
2:00 - 2:01seeking asylum in our country
-
2:01 - 2:02over the past five years --
-
2:02 - 2:05it's wrong, just simply wrong.
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2:07 - 2:10Tonight, I want to tell you
that children in immigration detention -
2:10 - 2:11are being traumatized.
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2:13 - 2:14And we are causing the trauma.
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2:16 - 2:18We in America --
-
2:18 - 2:20actually, those of us here tonight --
-
2:20 - 2:24will not necessarily be on the same page
with respect to immigration. -
2:25 - 2:28We'll disagree on how we're going
to handle all those people -
2:28 - 2:30who want to come to our country.
-
2:31 - 2:35Frankly, it doesn't matter to me
whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, -
2:35 - 2:36liberal or conservative.
-
2:39 - 2:41I want secure borders.
-
2:43 - 2:47I also want to keep the bad actors out.
-
2:48 - 2:50I want national security.
-
2:50 - 2:53And of course, you'll have your ideas
about those topics, too. -
2:55 - 2:57But I think we can agree
-
2:57 - 3:00that America should not be doing harm.
-
3:01 - 3:06The government, the state, should not
be in the business of hurting children. -
3:07 - 3:09It should be protecting them,
-
3:10 - 3:12no matter whose children they are:
-
3:12 - 3:15your children, my grandchildren
-
3:16 - 3:21and the children of families
just looking for asylum. -
3:22 - 3:25Now, I could tell you story after story
-
3:25 - 3:28of children who have witnessed
some of the worst violence in the world -
3:28 - 3:30and are now sitting in detention.
-
3:31 - 3:35But two little boys have stayed with me
over these past five years. -
3:37 - 3:38One of them was Danny.
-
3:39 - 3:42Danny was seven and a half years old
when I met him in a detention center -
3:43 - 3:45in Karnes City, Texas, back in 2014.
-
3:45 - 3:47He was there with his mother
and his brother, -
3:47 - 3:49and they had fled Honduras.
-
3:50 - 3:53You know, Danny is one of these kids
that you get to love instantly. -
3:54 - 3:56He's funny, he's innocent,
-
3:56 - 3:58he's charming and very expressive.
-
4:00 - 4:03And he's drawing pictures for me,
-
4:03 - 4:06and one of the pictures he drew for me
was of the Revos Locos. -
4:06 - 4:09The Revos Locos: this is the name
-
4:09 - 4:12that they gave to gangs
in the town that he was in. -
4:13 - 4:15I said to Danny,
-
4:15 - 4:17"Danny, what makes them bad guys?"
-
4:18 - 4:21Danny looked at me with puzzlement.
-
4:22 - 4:23I mean, the look was more like,
-
4:24 - 4:27"Are you clueless or just stupid?"
-
4:27 - 4:28(Laughter)
-
4:29 - 4:30He leaned in and he whispered,
-
4:30 - 4:32"Don't you see?
-
4:32 - 4:34They smoke cigarettes."
-
4:34 - 4:35(Laughter)
-
4:36 - 4:37"And they drink beer."
-
4:39 - 4:42Danny had learned, of course,
about the evils of drinking and smoking. -
4:43 - 4:45Then he said, "And they carry guns."
-
4:46 - 4:49In one of the pictures,
-
4:49 - 4:54the stick figures of the Revos Locos
are shooting at birds and at people. -
4:54 - 4:59Danny told me about the day his uncle
was killed by those Revos Locos -
4:59 - 5:02and how he ran from his house
to his uncle's farmhouse, -
5:02 - 5:04only to see his uncle's dead body,
-
5:04 - 5:08his face disfigured by bullets.
-
5:09 - 5:12And Danny told me he saw his uncle's teeth
coming out the back of his head. -
5:14 - 5:15He was only six at the time.
-
5:16 - 5:17Sometime after that,
-
5:17 - 5:22one of those Revos Locos
beat little Danny badly, severely, -
5:22 - 5:24and that's when his parents said,
-
5:24 - 5:27"We have got to leave
or they will kill us." -
5:29 - 5:30So they set out.
-
5:31 - 5:34But Danny's father was
a single-leg amputee with a crutch, -
5:34 - 5:36and he couldn't manage the rugged terrain.
-
5:37 - 5:38So he said to his wife,
-
5:40 - 5:42"Go without me. Take our boys.
-
5:43 - 5:44Save our boys."
-
5:45 - 5:47So Mom and the boys set off.
-
5:47 - 5:50Danny told me he looked back,
said goodbye to his father, -
5:50 - 5:53looked back a couple of times
until he lost sight of his father. -
5:53 - 5:56In detention, he had not
heard from his father. -
5:56 - 6:00And it's very likely that his father
was killed by the Revos Locos, -
6:00 - 6:01because he had tried to flee.
-
6:02 - 6:05I can't forget Danny.
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6:08 - 6:09The other boy was Fernando.
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6:10 - 6:13Now, Fernando was
in the same detention center, -
6:13 - 6:15roughly the same age as Danny.
-
6:16 - 6:20Fernando was telling me about the 24 hours
he spent in isolation with his mother -
6:20 - 6:22in the detention center,
-
6:22 - 6:25placed there because his mother
had led a hunger strike -
6:25 - 6:27among the mothers in the detention center,
-
6:27 - 6:30and now she was cracking
under the pressure of the guards, -
6:30 - 6:33who were threatening and being
very abusive towards her and Fernando. -
6:34 - 6:37As Fernando and I are talking
in the small office, -
6:37 - 6:39his mother burst in,
-
6:39 - 6:43and she says, "They hear you!
They're listening to you." -
6:43 - 6:45And she dropped to her hands and knees,
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6:47 - 6:51and she began to look under the table,
groping under all the chairs. -
6:51 - 6:54She looked at the electric sockets,
-
6:54 - 6:56at the corner of the room,
-
6:56 - 6:58the floor, the corner of the ceiling,
-
6:58 - 7:02at the lamp, at the air vent, looking
for hidden microphones and cameras. -
7:03 - 7:08I watched Fernando
as he watched his mother spiral -
7:08 - 7:09into this paranoid state.
-
7:10 - 7:13I looked in his eyes
and I saw utter terror. -
7:14 - 7:17After all, who would take care
of him if she couldn't? -
7:17 - 7:20It was just the two of them.
They only had each other. -
7:21 - 7:24I could tell you story after story,
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7:26 - 7:28but I haven't forgotten Fernando.
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7:30 - 7:33And I know something about
what that kind of trauma, -
7:33 - 7:35stress and adversity does to children.
-
7:37 - 7:40So I'm going to get clinical
with you for a moment, -
7:40 - 7:42and I'm going to be
the professor that I am. -
7:43 - 7:47Under prolonged and intense stress,
-
7:47 - 7:51trauma, hardship, adversity,
harsh conditions, -
7:52 - 7:56the developing brain is harmed,
-
7:56 - 7:57plain and simple.
-
7:58 - 8:00Its wiring and its architecture
-
8:00 - 8:01are damaged.
-
8:01 - 8:05The child's natural stress
response system is affected. -
8:06 - 8:08It's weakened of its protective factors.
-
8:08 - 8:13Regions of the brain
that are associated with cognition, -
8:13 - 8:15intellectual abilities,
-
8:15 - 8:19judgment, trust, self-regulation,
social interaction, -
8:19 - 8:22are weakened, sometimes permanently.
-
8:23 - 8:24That impairs children's future.
-
8:25 - 8:29We also know that under stress,
the child's immune system is suppressed, -
8:29 - 8:33making them susceptible to infections.
-
8:33 - 8:39Chronic illnesses, like diabetes,
asthma, cardiovascular disease, -
8:39 - 8:45will follow those children into adulthood
and likely shorten their lives. -
8:45 - 8:50Mental health problems are linked
to the breakdown of the body. -
8:50 - 8:52I have seen children in detention
-
8:53 - 8:56who have recurrent
and disturbing nightmares, -
8:56 - 8:58night terrors,
-
8:58 - 9:01depression and anxiety,
-
9:01 - 9:03dissociative reactions,
-
9:03 - 9:06hopelessness, suicidal thinking
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9:06 - 9:08and post-traumatic stress disorders.
-
9:09 - 9:11And they regress in their behavior,
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9:11 - 9:14like the 11-year-old boy
-
9:15 - 9:18who began to wet his bed again
after years of continence. -
9:19 - 9:22And the eight-year-old girl
who was buckling under the pressure -
9:22 - 9:25and was insisting
that her mother breastfeed her. -
9:25 - 9:28That is what detention does to children.
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9:30 - 9:32Now, you may ask:
-
9:34 - 9:36What do we do?
-
9:36 - 9:37What should our government do?
-
9:38 - 9:41Well, I'm just a mental
health professional, -
9:41 - 9:45so all I really know is about
children's health and development. -
9:45 - 9:46But I have some ideas.
-
9:47 - 9:50First, we need to reframe our practices.
-
9:51 - 9:54We need to replace fear and hostility
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9:54 - 9:56with safety and compassion.
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9:58 - 10:01We need to tear down the prison walls,
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10:01 - 10:03the barbed wire, take away the cages.
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10:04 - 10:07Instead of prison, or prisons,
-
10:08 - 10:13we should create orderly
asylum processing centers, -
10:13 - 10:16campus-like communities
-
10:16 - 10:18where children and families
can live together. -
10:19 - 10:22We could take old motels,
old army barracks, -
10:22 - 10:26refit them so that children and parents
can live as family units -
10:26 - 10:28in some safety and normality,
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10:28 - 10:29where kids can run around.
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10:30 - 10:32In these processing centers,
-
10:32 - 10:35pediatricians, family doctors,
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10:35 - 10:37dentists and nurses,
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10:37 - 10:40would be screening, examining,
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10:40 - 10:41treating and immunizing children,
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10:41 - 10:45creating records that will follow them
to their next medical provider. -
10:46 - 10:50Social workers would be conducting
mental health evaluations -
10:51 - 10:54and providing treatment
for those who need it. -
10:54 - 10:57Those social workers
would be connecting families -
10:57 - 11:00to services that they're going
to need, wherever they're headed. -
11:00 - 11:04And teachers would be teaching
and testing children -
11:04 - 11:07and documenting their learning
-
11:07 - 11:09so that the teachers at the next school
-
11:09 - 11:11can continue those children's education.
-
11:12 - 11:15There's a lot more that we could do
in these processing centers. -
11:17 - 11:19A lot more.
-
11:19 - 11:21And you probably are thinking,
-
11:21 - 11:23this is pie-in-the-sky stuff.
-
11:25 - 11:27Can't blame you.
-
11:27 - 11:32Well, let me tell you that refugee camps
all over the world are holding families -
11:32 - 11:35like those in our detention centers,
-
11:35 - 11:38and some of those refugee camps
are getting it right -
11:39 - 11:41far better than we are.
-
11:41 - 11:46The United Nations has issued reports
describing refugee camps -
11:46 - 11:48that protect children's
health and development. -
11:49 - 11:53Children and parents live in family units
-
11:53 - 11:56and clusters of families
are housed together. -
11:56 - 12:00Parents are given work permits
so they can earn some money, -
12:00 - 12:04they're given food vouchers so they can
go to the local stores and shop. -
12:05 - 12:08Mothers are brought together
to cook healthy meals for the children, -
12:09 - 12:12and children go to school
every day and are taught. -
12:13 - 12:16Afterwards, after school,
they go home and they ride bikes, -
12:16 - 12:19hang out with friends, do homework
and explore the world -- -
12:19 - 12:22all the essentials for child development.
-
12:24 - 12:27We can get it right.
We have the resources to get it right. -
12:29 - 12:34What we need is the will
and the insistence of Americans -
12:36 - 12:38that we treat children humanely.
-
12:41 - 12:46You know, I can't forget
Danny or Fernando. -
12:46 - 12:48I wonder where they are today,
-
12:48 - 12:51and I pray that they
are healthy and happy. -
12:52 - 12:54They are only two
of the many children I met -
12:54 - 12:57and of the thousands we know about
who have been in detention. -
12:59 - 13:01I may be saddened
-
13:01 - 13:04by what's happened to the children,
-
13:04 - 13:05but I'm inspired by them.
-
13:06 - 13:09I may cry, as I did,
-
13:11 - 13:13but I admire those children's strength.
-
13:14 - 13:17They keep alive my hope
and my optimism in the work I do. -
13:19 - 13:23So while we may differ
on our approach to immigration, -
13:23 - 13:26we should be treating children
with dignity and respect. -
13:27 - 13:29We should do right by them.
-
13:30 - 13:31If we do,
-
13:32 - 13:36we can prepare those children
who remain in the United States, -
13:36 - 13:41prepare them to become productive,
engaged members of our society. -
13:42 - 13:46And those who will return to their
countries whether voluntarily or not -
13:46 - 13:49will be prepared to become the teachers,
the merchants, the leaders -
13:49 - 13:51in their country.
-
13:51 - 13:55And I hope together
all of those children and parents -
13:55 - 13:59could give testimony to the world
about the goodness of our country -
13:59 - 14:00and our values.
-
14:01 - 14:02But we have to get it right.
-
14:04 - 14:08So we can agree
to disagree on immigration, -
14:08 - 14:10but I hope we can agree on one thing:
-
14:10 - 14:16that none of us wants to look back
at this moment in our history, -
14:16 - 14:21when we knew we were inflicting
lifelong trauma on children, -
14:21 - 14:23and that we sat back and did nothing.
-
14:25 - 14:29That would be the greatest tragedy of all.
-
14:31 - 14:32Thank you.
-
14:32 - 14:36(Applause)
- Title:
- The psychological impact of child separation at the US-Mexico border
- Speaker:
- Luis H. Zayas
- Description:
-
How does psychological trauma affect children's developing brains? In this powerful talk, social worker Luis H. Zayas discusses his work with refugees and asylum-seeking families at the US-Mexico border. What emerges is a stunning analysis of the long-term impact of the US's controversial detention and child separation policies -- and practical steps for how the country can do better.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 14:49
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for The psychological impact of child separation at the US-Mexico border | ||
Oliver Friedman approved English subtitles for The psychological impact of child separation at the US-Mexico border | ||
Oliver Friedman edited English subtitles for The psychological impact of child separation at the US-Mexico border | ||
Camille Martínez accepted English subtitles for The psychological impact of child separation at the US-Mexico border | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for The psychological impact of child separation at the US-Mexico border | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for The psychological impact of child separation at the US-Mexico border | ||
Joseph Geni edited English subtitles for The psychological impact of child separation at the US-Mexico border | ||
Joseph Geni edited English subtitles for The psychological impact of child separation at the US-Mexico border |