New report finds long-term psychological impacts of family separation border policy

A human rights group is renewing calls to offer compensation and support migrant families separated under the Trump administration’s zero tolerance border policy. Rights groups have previously said the policy was tantamount to torture.

Zero tolerance made crossing the border without permission a criminal offense and resulted in thousands of children being separated from their parents. In a report released this week, Physicians for Human Rights said it investigated the longer-term psychological impacts of the policy.

In evaluations of 13 parents who came to the border seeking asylum in the U.S, the group said it found some parents had spent four years apart from their children. Parents also reported going weeks with no information from the U.S. government about the whereabouts of their children. Almost all had been diagnosed with PTSD. 

Physicians for Human Rights said the U.S. should work to immediately reunite families and prohibit future separations at the border. It also said the Biden administration should work with Congress to forge a pathway for parents to remain in the U.S. permanently, provide monetary compensation to pay for psychiatric care, legal assistance and rehabilitation. The group said recommendations were made based on wishes relayed by impacted families. 

Some families were seeking monetary damages through a lawsuit brought by the ACLU, but the Biden administration dropped out of negotiations last December.