How is the Trump administration keeping track

of the impact of its immigration policies?

Since October 2014, the federal government has placed more than 150,000 unaccompanied minors with sponsors.

The Department of Health and Human Services was only able to get in touch with 87% of the children it had placed with sponsor when conducting follow-up calls in April to June of 2018.

13% of children could not be accounted for.

That means 1,500 children are missing

Due to poor IT practices, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general could not confirm the number of families the department separated at the southern border. CBP officials were aware of these IT problems for more than six months before the zero- tolerance policy went into effect.

So what is the mental health impact

of these policies?

“Honduran Man Kills Himself

After Being Separated From Family at U.S. Border, Reports Say”

The New York Times, June 2018

“You get a lot of ‘my chest hurts,’ even though everything is fine”...

The children would describe emotional symptoms:

“Every heartbeat hurts,” or “I can’t feel my heart.”

Frontline, September 2019

“For a child the most terrifying thing in the world is to be separated from their parent.

It's the worst thing that a child can experience.”

CBS News, October 2019

A child who believed his father was killed

“ultimately required emergency psychiatric care to address his mental health distress.”

ABC News, September 2019

The computerized system used by Customs and Border patrol to record the families separated by Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy lacked the ability to search by last name, age range or apprehension date. DHS has estimated that border patrol agents separated more than 3,000 children from their families in that time.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has made no move at gathering data on the long-lasting effects of the trauma of family separation on the children and their parents.

Can it even be quantified?