Migrant Children Must Be Reunited With Parents Immediately, Mental Health Experts Say
Although President Donald Trump ended his family separation policy, there's no plans to address the children that have already been taken from their parents. Some advocates have suggested that public genetic testing sites could aid in the process of reuniting families. Meanwhile, there's profit to be made off the health care needs of those held at the border. And chaos reigns supreme even after the president's executive order.
The Hill:
Dems, Health Groups Demand Immigrant Children Be Quickly Reunited With Families
Democrats and medical professionals on Thursday called for children separated from their families at the border to be immediately reunited to minimize any long-term harm to their mental and physical health. “The executive order President Trump signed yesterday does not resolve this crisis that he created,” said Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) at a press conference with representatives of health groups. (Hellmann, 6/21)
Modern Healthcare:
Immigrant Detention Crisis Could Yield Profit For Some Providers And Payers
As Congress flounders in another messy immigration debate, medical contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars could grow amid the fallout of President Donald Trump's executive order to halt his own policy to separate families illegally entering the country. Healthcare for detained immigrants—both children and adults—is a sprawling, confusing system where various government agencies contract with networks of doctors and community hospitals. It is also an expensive system whose costs are hard to predict and manage since they are based on unexpected surges in people crossing the border. (Luthi, 6/21)
The Washington Post:
The Chaotic Effort To Reunite Immigrant Parents With Their Separated Kids
Each of the mothers had a different memory of the moment she was separated from her child. For some, it was outside a Border Patrol station just north of the Rio Grande, shortly after being apprehended. For others, it was after an interrogation by federal authorities in a bitterly cold air-conditioned office. Jodi Goodwin, an attorney in Harlingen, Tex., has heard more than two dozen variations of those stories from Central American mothers who have been detained for days or weeks without their children. So far, she has not been able to locate a single one of their offspring. (Sieff, 6/21)
The New York Times:
No Relief In Sight For Parents Of Thousands Of Migrant Children Still In Custody
Micaela Samol Gonzalez, dressed in blue detention scrubs, made her way to the front of a windowless courtroom in Colorado on Thursday and faced the judge. After she gave her name and arranged a future court date for her immigration case, the judge asked whether she had any questions. She had just one. (Healy, 6/21)
The Associated Press:
Confusion And Uncertainty At The Border After Trump Acts
The U.S. government wrestled with the ramifications Thursday of President Donald Trump’s move to stop separating families at the border, with no clear plan to reunite the more than 2,300 children already taken from their parents and Congress again failing to take action on immigration reform. In a day of confusion and conflicting reports, the Trump administration began drawing up plans to house as many as 20,000 migrants on U.S. military bases. But officials gave differing accounts as to whether those beds would be for children or for entire families. (Merchant and Bryan, 6/21)