Once again the perspective of the German government media icon, Deutsche Weil, seems somewhat perplexing as they attempt to provide a psychological analysis of migrant children being reunited with parents on the US border. Apparently, the problem is the fact that many children aren’t too keen about the reunion, and DW would have us believe it is because they have been traumatized as a result of the separation.
Really?
Children don’t want to hug their mothers and fathers, they don’t smile or run and jump into their arms with happiness and glee. Instead they are sullen, distant, and scowling… Odd. Or maybe not so odd.
According to Dr. Elizabeth Barnert of UCLA, she warns that children will be angry, feel abandoned, and have life long health problems as a direct result of the US migrant separation policy. So why isn’t this the case when veterans are deployed overseas and can be away from their children for a year or even more? Why is it that time and again the veterans are greeted by their children with huge hugs and tears and kisses? What could possibly be different?
Could it be because their fathers were beating them? Could it be because they were abused? Could it be because the sexual abuse they have endured in their homes has left a lifetime of scars? Could it be because their life in the shelters was actually much more wholesome than the life they will return to?
Years ago when I lived in California, I came to know an immigrant family from Mexico. Each year they legally submitted an application and paid the fee to have one of their children come to the US. One child per year. I remember Anna telling me how hard it was because all the children were being sexually abused by their uncle. And yet, there was nothing they could do. It was tortuous.
Could it be that these sad immigrant children reunited with their parents are not showing joy because this is the life we are returning them to at the behest of our outraged Hollywooders and politicians?
DW also cites Dr. Shonkoff who specializes in researching child development from a scientific viewpoint at Harvard. Oddly, he too is making an analysis without actually interviewing any of the migrant children. In fact, the basis of his theory could be more impactful in analyzing the development of children who are raised by nannies, day cares and public schools systems instead of by their parents. The feelings of abandonment and neglect that institutionalizing children creates. Or perhaps his research could apply to the roughly 150,000 orphans in the US… But instead, somehow the millions are neglected in order to make a a statement about a few hundred. Why?
So why would these two esteemed doctors make subjective statements regarding the psychological and health implications about a few immigrant children without conducting any interviews, specific research, or analysis of the life they are returning to? Why would they condemn the possible value that the shelter offered, as a ‘shelter’ from harm?
The cued media response is ‘irreparable harm, brain damage, obesity, and even – cancer!! WOW! What about the hundreds of thousands of children that are sent to the US unaccompanied – by their parents? Hush!
The misplaced outrage is obtusely – misplaced.
Hundreds of migrant children will be traumatized, adversely affected, and Trump is the ultimate target of blame… But what about the 2.7 million children who have a parent in prison? Are they victims of brain damage and cancer? How about the ‘ever increasing’ number of children in foster care now numbering roughly 450,000! Where is the media outrage? Where is Hollywood?
In 2008, a NY judge broke with tradition and granted asylum to three Honduran children who were being sexually abused by their relatives in Honduras. Did any of these esteemed doctors who gave their name to the media as a reference against Trump’s policy research what these children were being sent back to? Or maybe that reality didn’t fit the anti agenda…
Could it be that these ‘dogooders’ are oblivious to the abuse? I doubt it.
In 2009, a report was issued that highlighted the fact that child sex abuse is at epidemic levels in Honduras and that statistics place it as one of the highest in the world! Still it is below El Salvador… Oh that’s right, many of the migrant children we are sending back home come from El Salvador too.
In 2006, UNICEF issued a scathing report in which it claimed that 40 million children younger than 15 were victims of violence, abuse and neglect in Latin America and the Caribbean alone! And most of the violence takes place in the HOME.
HUSH.
Maybe that’s why these children aren’t looking too happy when they are reunited with their fathers, uncles and family… This is what they are returning to as a result of the media, the outraged Liberals, and the Hollywood elite who throw pennies on the problem all the while derailing Trump. Where are the politicians now who sought to see their name in print, the face plastered on papers as a guardian for youth? Because it would appear by all accounts that what has been accomplished is to return these children to a living hell.
Are they protecting the children – or are they putting them to – a living death? Were the Shelters the only safety they have ever known…