a new report out today indicates
that a trump administration
policy to separate migrant
families at the border is still
taking a toll. Years after it
was officially ended. The group
physicians for human rights has
found many of the parents and
children who were split up
continue to experience intense
psychological and emotional
trauma. Many are showing signs
of post traumatic stress
disorder. Hundreds of children
have yet to be reunited with
their families, all while the
government navigates lawsuits
around this issue and growing
pressure around other border and
immigration conflicts.
To help us make sense of all of
this I'm joined by our chief
amna nawaz who has been
following this story on going
back for some time, so tell us
about this report. And why is it
important all the
years later?
>> Judy, first study that
actually tries to take a look at
what the long term impact of
that family separation policy
was, and you and I remember it
well reported on it when we
first learned about it in 2018.
This was the zero tolerance
policy that the trump
administration put into place,
forcibly separating children
from their parents. 1000s of
kids it was chaotic. It was cool
-- cruel reporting showed they
had no intention and no system
in place to try to reunite them.
So this study conducted
psychological evaluations of 13
of those parents 13 parents who
were separated at the border
from their kids, some for
months, some for years. Most of
them were deported without their
kids, two of them remain
separated to this day. And what
clinicians found was that the
trauma is still very real and
very present all these years
later. Parents vividly remember
their children crying and
screaming being ripped from
their arms by the guards when
dad remembered after being
reunited with his son. The first
thing his son said was how could
you let them take me? One mom
said I don't think I will ever
recover from so clinician save
on PTSD, depressive disorder,
thoughts of suicide, recurrent
nightmares and the fear of being
separated. In all of these
parents. And this is the key
takeaway from their study, Judy,
they say they conclude each of
the 13 cases documented
constituted torture and
temporarily enforced
disappearance. Judy, those are
violations under international
and domestic law and experts say
they require some kind of
redress.
>> And what kind of redress?
Would that be? I mean, what are
they looking for from
the government?
>> So they ask parents, what
would be helpful what kinds of
bills that they need to move
forward? They want the work to
continue to reunite families, as
you mentioned, hundreds of
families still remain separated
to this day. They want laws
passed that prevent this from
happening again. They want a
formal apology from the us
government which we haven't
seen, and they also are seeking
some kind of monetary
compensation for psychological
therapeutic support leads that
they experts say they will have
in the years ahead so that
monetary compensation is part of
an ongoing lawsuit. The aclu
brought that along with other
people, the Biden administration
is fighting that they picked up
the trump administration's
battle on that. And we spoke
earlier today with the aclu
alert who is fighting the Biden
administration in court on this
and here's what he had to say
about that fight.
>> The Biden administration
thinks that it was morally who
wants to fix it, but I don't
know that they're doing
everything that they are
allowing them to be reunified,
that it's critical, but they
have walked away from the
negotiating capers provide
monetary compensation, and we
still don't know whether they're
going to provide a clear pathway
to allow these families to
remain in the country. I hope
the American public realizes
that this is still going on.
>> This is one thing we heard
from everyone they talked to was
there's an assumption family
separations, and it's been dealt
with people are reunited and
it's over. And that's just not
true. The harm that was caused
has ever been recognized.
Separations continue, though not
on mass, and there's actually no
rules in place that would
prevent this from happening
>> I think you're right. Many
people have no idea. It was just
the pain would linger like this
and all this is going on, as we
know the number of border
crossings continues to go up and
as the Biden administration is
on the verge of doing away with
this ruling so called title 42,
which is expected to bring even
more people.
>> Right we've been reporting on
this the border numbers are
high. They have been high going
on for several months. They're
taxing already stressed border
system and then by the
the administration says it's
ending title 42 on may 23. That
was the CDC pandemic rule
basically expelled most people
immediately at the border. So
homeland security officials,
civil society groups are doing
what they can to get ready.
They're anticipating an increase
at the border. But we have
already seen already seen the
trafficking networks of people
who are in the business of
moving people ramping up their
efforts too and so we are seeing
an increase. Officials tell us
not just for people coming from
Mexico from Central America, but
much further afield. Brazil and
Venezuela from India from Russia
and Ukraine in recent months as
well. That makes it much harder
to process and enforce the
border. We actually spoke to one
shiff, a man named mark
Daniels. He's from cochise
county, Arizona. It's a border
community just east of Tucson to
ask what he's been seeing.
Here's what he said.
>> We've seen from human
smuggling to drug smuggling
cash, weapons, you name it over
my 38 years in law enforcement
work and I will say this, this
is the worst it's ever been the
impact we're seeing if you
compare that to two years ago,
we are on camera system. We saw
a max of 400 a month. Now we're
pushing 8000 a month.
>> Sobering, sobering to hear
that. So finally, I don't know
what about the politics of this.
We are in a midterm election
year it is just months away when
people go to the polls. How much
of an issue is immigration
expect it to be?
>> Is so complicated, because
it's not just Democrats on one
side and Republicans on the
other. A number of democratic
senators now are some of whom
are facing voters in November,
we should note are also
criticizing president Biden at
the border policies. We've put
together a list of just a few of
them we've been seeing that
criticism from the include
senators Kelly, Warnock Cortez,
masto, Hasson cinema Manchin,
tester, Peters and coons. Now,
we should say the white house
has always said anyone who wants
to work on immigration reform
Democrat or Republican. You're
welcome. We want a safe orderly
system. The system has not been
meaningfully changed in 30
years, it would take congress to
do that they have failed to act
again and again. So we ended up
where we always ended up which
is the people who are trying to
enforce the border and the
people who are seeking safer
ground trying to cross it gets
stuck in the middle and that's
where we are today.
>> Immigration has been such a
tough issue for so long. And
what you're saying is that
it's still is still it's very
much so