Soon after Donald Trump took office as president, he ordered a no-tolerance policy with regard to border crossings. People who entered this country illegally, many of whom previously might have been immediately deported at the nearest port of entry or processed and released pending deportation hearings, now were incarcerated. Children can’t be jailed with their parents, so they were taken to separate detention centers.
Human rights advocates and organizations worldwide decried the policy as tantamount to torture. The AmericanAcademy of Pediatrics called it child abuse.
Two years after Trump was ousted from office, thousands of these families remain separated and the current administration is still trying to repair the damage.
Before the families are reunited, however, the Justice Department wants them to undergo psychiatric evaluations.
Let’s stop abusing these families. They’ve been through enough. Reunite them and let them start to rebuild their lives.
The situation came to light last month through a lawsuit some migrant families filed against the federal government.
Attorneys for the Justice Department have requested the testing in order to address claims in the lawsuit that the children have suffered permanent emotional and mental injuries as a result of being torn away from their families.
These children have been in federal custody for years, and should have been monitored. The government already should have records on each child, with information detailing their health, medical condition, behavior, educational progress and other issues — just it does for every other detainee, inmate and prisoner, regardless of age.
In fact, they already have such information. News reports indicate that the children have been evaluated by government investigators, who have reported that many of them show extreme fear, feelings of abandonment and even post-traumatic stress.
Third-party physicians, many working for human-rights organizations, have conducted similar evaluations on many of the parents and reported many of them suffer depression, nightmares, panic attacks and even suicidal thoughts.
Those evaluations should be enough to serve the court’s needs with respect to the lawsuit.
Aggressive defense against a lawsuit is a common practice. However, smart parties know when it’s best to cut their losses, seek a settlement, and allow everyone to move on and let the rebuilding begin. This clearly is one of those times.
Migrant family separations were well documented when they occurred. President Biden himself decried the practice as “an outrage,” a moral failing and a stain on our national character.”
Forcing the families to continue their suffering and the children to remain apart from their families just to litigate a lawsuit only deepens that stain on our nation’s history. It only makes it more difficult to regain the lost standing in the world we have suffered in recent years.
This is a fight not worth fighting for our government. The Justice Department, in the name of justice, should drop its request for new psychiatric evaluations and seek a way to end this lawsuit, and this unfortunate chapter of our country’s history.
