Newswise — EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University professors from the fields of medicine, political science and religious studies are available to comment on the Trump administration’s controversial policy of separating migrant children from their parents.

Effects of separation on children:

Mark Reinecke, PhD, is the chief of psychology in the department of psychiatry and behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He is available by pager at 312-707-0221 or reporters can contact Kristin Samuelson directly at [email protected].  

“Separation can lead to depression, anxiety, feelings of vulnerability and insecurity, hopelessness, helplessness and potentially PTSD. Forced separation, then, can be quite traumatic.

“The effects of separation can vary depending on the age of the child, the availability of social supports and their history of prior traumatic experiences. Herein lies the problem: many, if not most, of these children come from impoverished, chaotic environments. Their families are fleeing poverty and violence. Many of these children, then, are emotionally at risk before they find their way to our border. They are then separated from their families and placed in a stressful, unfamiliar environment with few supports. From a child development perspective, this all but ensures emotional and psychological damage.

“There’s a great deal of research that’s been conducted on associations between separation and emotional development in children. We hope that policymakers will use this information to come to the right decisions.” 

Potential impact on children in these facilities:

“Youth in these facilities live under guard, surrounded by unfamiliar peers, in an austere, foreboding setting. Moreover, they have little contact with family, friends, or other social supports. Not surprisingly, juvenile detention centers are characterized by high levels of depression, anxiety, hopelessness and suicide.”

 

The Role of Religion

Robert Orsi is professor of religious studies, Grace Craddock Nagle Chair in Catholic Studies in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University. He studies American religious history and contemporary practice; American Catholicism in both historical and ethnographic perspective; and he is widely recognized also for his work on theory and method for the study of religion. He can be reached at [email protected].

Quote from Professor Orsi
“Attorney General Jeff Sessions is heir to an intellectual tradition once prominent in the American South, and in particular in the state of Virginia, that used selective readings of Christian scripture to provide sacral justification for the institution of slavery and later for Jim Crow apartheid.

“Under the cover of alleged Biblical warrant, slave marriages before the Civil War were broken up and children separated from their families; after the war African American men were taken from their homes and pressed into enforced labor in southern industry.

“This is not a matter of what the Bible says or does not say. It has to do with the particular variant of American Protestant Christianity Attorney General Sessions comes from, which justifies violence against people whose skin is not as white as theirs with the claim that the United States is a white nation by divine will.

“It is worth remembering in this context that Hitler’s lawyers looked to the American Protestant Christian South for guidance in shaping the National Socialist legislation that paved the way for the Shoah.”

 

Trump's hardline stance on immigration

Jaime Dominguez is an assistant professor of instruction in the department of political science in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. His teaching and research focuses on race and ethnicity, immigration, urban politics, Latino politics and Chicago politics. He can be reached at (mobile) 312-375-4868 or 
[email protected].

Quote from Professor Dominguez
“The incarceration of young children represents a self-inflicted wound by the Trump administration immigration policy. Taking a hardline stance and choosing to separate families at the border is not going to deter immigrants from coming to the U.S. The decision to do this is clearly being done to appease to his base and the GOP leadership.”

 

Eliminating the Ancient Tolerance of Birthright

Jacqueline Stevens is a professor of political science in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and director of the Deportation Research Clinic at Northwestern University. She can be reached at (mobile) 805-637-4696 or [email protected] 

Quote from Professor Stevens
“The civilized world no longer allows slavery, prohibits women from owning property, and restricts free movement within a country for its legal residents. It is time to deliver the final blow to the ancient tolerance of birthright and the barbaric policies this entails by allowing people to choose the countries where they will live.”

More news at Northwestern Now
Find experts on our Faculty Experts Hub
Follow @NUSources for expert perspectives