President's Message
The current “Zero Tolerance” policy used at our borders that separates children from their parents may be legal but it is neither moral, nor compassionate. Innocent children are being exposed to long lasting or even permanent threats to their positive mental and physical health. While reasonable debates may ensue about how to secure our borders, policies that harm children should not be in place.
Decades of research in psychology and child development show that children need their parents – or excellent parent substitutes – to develop normally. Traumatic separations – even those for short periods – from parents (especially during the early years of life) can disrupt the all-important process of attachment between children and their parents. Successful attachment with parents predicts positive outcomes for children, including low anxiety, high trust, better health and more resilience. These children are more likely to become productive members of their community and whether that is in the United States or elsewhere, these outcomes affect all of us.
Further, if reports are true that child detention caregivers are forbidden to hug or physically comfort young children, then separated children are facing additional danger. Research has shown, time and again, that young children must receive physical comfort from caring adults. Babies and toddlers cannot thrive without physical touch.
Cal State Long Beach is home to dozens of experts in child development. Their research, and findings from experts around the world, confirms the cruelty of the Zero Tolerance policy. As just one example, we can look back with shame at policies that separated Native American children from their parents by sending the children to boarding schools. The death rates among children in those facilities was horrendously beyond the expected mortality rates for young children. Surely, we have become better than this as Americans.
We are certainly a nation of laws, but we must aspire to be a nation that uses evidence to inform our laws and policies. I urge Congress to act on this and for the Trump administration to take immediate action to stop this policy – regardless of its legality. In this case, the evidence demands that we avoid cruel and unusual punishment directed toward innocent children. A more compassionate policy enables the development of healthier children, stronger families and a better world.
