‘SEVERE MENTAL TRAUMA’

Judge: U.S. Must Provide Mental Health Services to Migrant Families Separated Under Zero-Tolerance Policy

The government has been ordered to make treatment immediately available for migrant families who were separated.

A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. government must provide mental health services to thousands of migrant parents and children who were separated under the Trump administration's zero-tolerance immigration policy, The New York Times reports. In a late Tuesday ruling, Judge John Kronstadt found that the government had taken “affirmative steps to implement the zero-tolerance policy” which subsequently caused “severe mental trauma to parents and their children.” Kronstadt issued a preliminary injunction that would require the government to immediately make mental health resources available to migrants who experienced the forced separation—which includes screenings, counseling, and other services. The judge also said the Trump administration could be held accountable for the psychological harm that the family separation policy caused. Almost 3,000 children were separated from their parents under the policy and an additional 1,556 families also experienced separation in 2017 and 2018. The government has not yet commented on the ruling.