Help a Sick Migrant Baby Heal
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On December 30, 2019, a young mother and her two small daughters (ages 1 and 6) entered the United States after fleeing death threats in Honduras. A gang was demanding protection money which they could not pay. Their threats were not idle, as this gang had already killed neighbors of theirs, including children. They could not go to the police. Too often, reporting to the police put people at greater risk.
Desperate to save her children’s lives, the mother made a choice that any parent in her shoes would make. They would seek the safety of asylum in the United States.
The children arrived at the border in good health, eager to reunite with their father who was waiting for them in the US. But 5 days into life in the freezing, deprivational confinement of border patrol cages, the 1 year old got sick. In those 5 days, cold burritos had been thrown at them for breakfast and lunch, a slice of meat and bread for dinner.
The children were given no milk.
Fluorescent lights, shining perpetually, combined with the discomfort of the cold floor and their empty bellies to deprive them of sleep.
Border guards yelled at the mother, taunting her daily, promising that she and her girls would be sent back to their deaths in Honduras or else to Guatemala, where they’d never been and knew no one. When the mother fell to her knees begging for kindness and mercy, she was laughed at by the guards, told to get up and shut up.
The 1 year old baby, now not only sick but also traumatized by the harsh environment and her mother’s distress, was given very little treatment.
Her health deteriorated. Her older sister also fell ill. Both were hospitalized.
The 1 year old was diagnosed with two infections and dehydration. She’d developed a cough that badly shook her small body. She had difficulty breathing. She required IV fluids and a respiratory monitor.
Despite the condition of these children, the government moved to have them quickly removed to Guatemala as part of America’s new program to outsource it’s harsh rejection of all asylum seekers . These small children and their mother, fleeing death threats in their own country, would now be forced into another country, one strange to them and equally affected by widespread violence, especially toward vulnerable populations.
Any due process for this family was entirely dispensed with. Border patrol refused to allow the mother to meet with her attorney. The government refused to release papers critical to her case, such as the removal order. They were denied their request to have an independent pediatrician examine the children.
The morning just before the removal order was to go into effect, both children were discharged from the hospital. The 1 year old’s IV was removed and despite the severity of her illness and the lack of any recuperative rest, an RN signed an order allowing her to travel in the infection-ridden environment of an airplane to a strange land with no supports.
There would be no sleep for this family, as the processing for those being removed would begin at 1:00am. The depleted 1 year old baby, her mother, and her 6 year old sister would be forced onto a plane for removal , still wearing the clothes they’d arrived in 2 weeks earlier. They have no one in Guatemala. They will arrive in a strange land with nothing.
While we reckon with the abject cruelty America shows to those who are fleeing unspeakable violence in their home countries, let us ponder how much greater is such inhumanity when it is visited upon a small and vulnerable child. An INNOCENT CHILD whose health is at significant risk.
Please help us to push back against this ugly version of America by showing our own generosity and kindness: by offering this child, her sister, and her mother a small cushion of protection.
Your donations will be used to pay for all basics: clothing, food, safe shelter, medical care, telephone, transportation, even mail service to exchange documents with their attorney. All of us who have helped this family, including their attorneys, have done so without payment. With your help, we can continue to help them free of charge.
If you cannot afford to give, there’s still a way you can help! Please share this GoFundMe wirth your friends, relatives, co-workers, and anyone else who may be able to chip in. THANK YOU!
*******
Dr. Amy Cohen is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Every. Last. One. She is a child and family psychiatrist who has spent much of her long professional career addressing the psychological trauma issues of vulnerable populations of children and families. Dr. Cohen currently works, speaks, writes, and is interviewed extensively on the experience of asylum-seeking children whose trauma from violence in their home countries has been compounded by American government-imposed separation from family and protracted stays in immigration detention. In 2018, working at Sister Norma Pimentel’s respite center in McAllen, Texas, Dr. Cohen developed a trauma treatment training program for respite center volunteers. She currently serves as mental health and child welfare consultant to senior Flores Settlement Agreement counsel. In that role, she has interviewed migrant children in government custody, served as advisor to the Special Master, and advised counsel and government officials on mental health and policy issues. She offers pro bono psychological evaluation and treatment to traumatized migrant children and families and consults to advocates working within child immigration shelters. Dr. Cohen has testified before congressional representatives and the United States Senate about the child mental health consequences of current immigration policies, including family separation and detention, and has consulted with the ACLU as well as other civil rights attorney groups supporting the needs of asylum seeking children and families. Dr. Cohen provided the principal affidavit evidence in support of the Dora v Sessions legal action, brought on behalf of asylum-seeking parents separated from their children and slated for deportation. After conducting the interviews for this case, she worked with each of these parents, teaching them techniques which would enable them and their children to feel connected and less traumatized through their terrible experience of separation. Dr. Cohen is a member of Physicians for Human Rights and serves on the Medical and Scientific Advisory Board of the National Center for Youth Law. In the latter role, she has participated in campaigns addressing the over-use of psychotropic medication in dependent child populations and worked on initiatives promoting Juvenile Justice reform. Dr. Cohen received her medical degree from the Perelman University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and completed her internship, general psychiatry, residency, and child psychiatry fellowship training at Harvard. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
Desperate to save her children’s lives, the mother made a choice that any parent in her shoes would make. They would seek the safety of asylum in the United States.
The children arrived at the border in good health, eager to reunite with their father who was waiting for them in the US. But 5 days into life in the freezing, deprivational confinement of border patrol cages, the 1 year old got sick. In those 5 days, cold burritos had been thrown at them for breakfast and lunch, a slice of meat and bread for dinner.
The children were given no milk.
Fluorescent lights, shining perpetually, combined with the discomfort of the cold floor and their empty bellies to deprive them of sleep.
Border guards yelled at the mother, taunting her daily, promising that she and her girls would be sent back to their deaths in Honduras or else to Guatemala, where they’d never been and knew no one. When the mother fell to her knees begging for kindness and mercy, she was laughed at by the guards, told to get up and shut up.
The 1 year old baby, now not only sick but also traumatized by the harsh environment and her mother’s distress, was given very little treatment.
Her health deteriorated. Her older sister also fell ill. Both were hospitalized.
The 1 year old was diagnosed with two infections and dehydration. She’d developed a cough that badly shook her small body. She had difficulty breathing. She required IV fluids and a respiratory monitor.
Despite the condition of these children, the government moved to have them quickly removed to Guatemala as part of America’s new program to outsource it’s harsh rejection of all asylum seekers . These small children and their mother, fleeing death threats in their own country, would now be forced into another country, one strange to them and equally affected by widespread violence, especially toward vulnerable populations.
Any due process for this family was entirely dispensed with. Border patrol refused to allow the mother to meet with her attorney. The government refused to release papers critical to her case, such as the removal order. They were denied their request to have an independent pediatrician examine the children.
The morning just before the removal order was to go into effect, both children were discharged from the hospital. The 1 year old’s IV was removed and despite the severity of her illness and the lack of any recuperative rest, an RN signed an order allowing her to travel in the infection-ridden environment of an airplane to a strange land with no supports.
There would be no sleep for this family, as the processing for those being removed would begin at 1:00am. The depleted 1 year old baby, her mother, and her 6 year old sister would be forced onto a plane for removal , still wearing the clothes they’d arrived in 2 weeks earlier. They have no one in Guatemala. They will arrive in a strange land with nothing.
While we reckon with the abject cruelty America shows to those who are fleeing unspeakable violence in their home countries, let us ponder how much greater is such inhumanity when it is visited upon a small and vulnerable child. An INNOCENT CHILD whose health is at significant risk.
Please help us to push back against this ugly version of America by showing our own generosity and kindness: by offering this child, her sister, and her mother a small cushion of protection.
Your donations will be used to pay for all basics: clothing, food, safe shelter, medical care, telephone, transportation, even mail service to exchange documents with their attorney. All of us who have helped this family, including their attorneys, have done so without payment. With your help, we can continue to help them free of charge.
If you cannot afford to give, there’s still a way you can help! Please share this GoFundMe wirth your friends, relatives, co-workers, and anyone else who may be able to chip in. THANK YOU!
*******
Dr. Amy Cohen is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Every. Last. One. She is a child and family psychiatrist who has spent much of her long professional career addressing the psychological trauma issues of vulnerable populations of children and families. Dr. Cohen currently works, speaks, writes, and is interviewed extensively on the experience of asylum-seeking children whose trauma from violence in their home countries has been compounded by American government-imposed separation from family and protracted stays in immigration detention. In 2018, working at Sister Norma Pimentel’s respite center in McAllen, Texas, Dr. Cohen developed a trauma treatment training program for respite center volunteers. She currently serves as mental health and child welfare consultant to senior Flores Settlement Agreement counsel. In that role, she has interviewed migrant children in government custody, served as advisor to the Special Master, and advised counsel and government officials on mental health and policy issues. She offers pro bono psychological evaluation and treatment to traumatized migrant children and families and consults to advocates working within child immigration shelters. Dr. Cohen has testified before congressional representatives and the United States Senate about the child mental health consequences of current immigration policies, including family separation and detention, and has consulted with the ACLU as well as other civil rights attorney groups supporting the needs of asylum seeking children and families. Dr. Cohen provided the principal affidavit evidence in support of the Dora v Sessions legal action, brought on behalf of asylum-seeking parents separated from their children and slated for deportation. After conducting the interviews for this case, she worked with each of these parents, teaching them techniques which would enable them and their children to feel connected and less traumatized through their terrible experience of separation. Dr. Cohen is a member of Physicians for Human Rights and serves on the Medical and Scientific Advisory Board of the National Center for Youth Law. In the latter role, she has participated in campaigns addressing the over-use of psychotropic medication in dependent child populations and worked on initiatives promoting Juvenile Justice reform. Dr. Cohen received her medical degree from the Perelman University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and completed her internship, general psychiatry, residency, and child psychiatry fellowship training at Harvard. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
Organizer
Dr. Amy Cohen
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA
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