Reporting shows the harshness of Trump’s Zero Tolerance immigration policy
Many workers within the immigration system had to track down the parents of separated children, according to an Atlantic article by Caitlin Dickerson.
Courtesy of Wiki Commons
During the first half of the Trump Administration, the Zero Tolerance policy was implemented. It split asylum-seeking families trying to cross the border into the country — separating thousands of children from their parents as a result.
A new report by Atlantic writer Caitlin Dickerson uncovered how the policy came into being, who allowed it to happen, what the consequences for families were and what our immigration system looks like now.
“When a kid is developing their attachment system, and when their brain is growing, to go through such a trauma really has, in a lot of cases, lifelong consequences.” — Caitlin Dickerson, Atlantic staff writer
Listen: How the immigration system operated with intentional cruelty a few years ago.
Guest
Caitlin Dickerson is a staff writer at The Atlantic. She is also the author of a new piece about the secret history of the U.S. government’s family-separation policy, called “An American Catastrophe.”
Dickerson says many kids are still dealing with the trauma of being ripped away from their parents.
“When a kid is developing their attachment system,” says Dickerson, “and when their brain is growing, to go through such a trauma really has, in a lot of cases, lifelong consequences.”
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