Infants and toddlers taken from their parents found; senators call for Nielsen's resignatoin

YESTERDAY, the question was asked: where are the babies and toddlers who have been separated from their parents as their families entered the United States.

They have been found. The Associated Press reported today (June 19) that those babies and other young children are being sent to three "tender age" shelters in South Texas. 

Medical personnel and attorneys who have visited these sites described rooms full of crying preschool-age children.

Children who have been separated from their parents or guardians can suffer irrevocable, long-term trauma even from a short-term separation from their parents, says Dr. Colleen Kraft, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

She recalls one girl crying hysterically on the mats in the middle of the room.

“The staff were by her, but they weren't allowed to hold her, comfort her,” Kraft says. “So she was just crying and wailing. Her little arms and legs were just pounding, and she was inconsolable. And we all knew why. We knew that she had been taken from her mother, and she wanted her mother.”

"What happens is that overall, this toxic stress really robs these children of the ability to love and to learn and to do well in school and to graduate from high school and to go on to college and to be successful," Kraft says. "And later on in life, it robs them of their capacity to be healthy grown adults."

Since the Trump admnistration launched its zero-tolerance policy against immigrant families coming over the U.S.-Mexico border in May, about 2,300 youngsters have been separated from their parents, most of whom have come to the U.S. to ask for asylum, a legal and internationally recognized process -- not to enter the country illegally.

Senators Mazie Hirono and Kamala Harris have asked for the resignation of  Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen for carrying out the policy.

"I called on Kirstjen Nielsen to resign as Secretary of Homeland Security for a lack of transparency and for implementing a policy of separating thousands of children from parents along our southern border," said Harris to the senator's supporters.

"Her numerous misleading statements, including denying yesterday that the government had a policy of separating children from their families at the border, are disqualifying.

"She has lost the trust of the American people and must resign -- and I am asking you to add your voice alongside mine in this fight." she said.

"These are not normal times, because we have a president who lies every single day and he expects the people around him -- he thrusts them forward as he did with Kirstjen Nielsen yesterday to lie for him," Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-HI, told reporters. 

"So, I have said that everything around him who have basically sold their souls to keep their jobs and lie for the President, I would welcome their resignations. She lied yesterday for the President."

The AP story reported that the doctors and lawyers who have visited the shelters said the facilities were fine, clean and safe, but the kids — who have no idea where their parents are — were hysterical, crying and acting out.

“The shelters aren’t the problem, it’s taking kids from their parents that’s the problem,” said South Texas pediatrician Marsha Griffin who has visited the shelters.

"Let me be clear: our government should be in the business of keeping families together, not tearing them apart," said Harris.

"And despite what this Administration is saying, there is no law forcing them to cruelly separate children from their families."

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