'Fear of Trump' Is Making Some Children Physically Sick, Say Health Experts
As nation braces for what life under Trump will mean, anxieties are specifically growing among those targeted by president-elect
After a campaign built on xenophobic remarks, a pledge to construct a massive wall across the southern border, and promises to form "a deportation force" to rid the nation of millions of undocumented immigrants, it's not surprising the psychological impact of Donald Trump's rhetoric would be most sharply felt among those living within those communities.
"People worry their families will be broken up, that parents will be deported and children will end up in foster care, on a scale that we've never seen before. The feeling out there is one of great fear." --Marielena Hincapie, National Immigration Law Center
And now, with the reality setting in that Trump will soon by the President of the United States, the Guardian reports Friday how pediatricians serving in communities with large populations of undocumented immigrants are seeing a spike in anxiety-related physical illnesses, most notably among children expressing worry that they, their parents, or other loved ones will soon be arrested or deported.
As the Guardian's Andrew Gumbel reports:
One little boy in North Carolina has been suffering crippling stomach aches in class because he's afraid he might return home to find his parents gone. In California, many families are reporting that their children are leaving school in tears because their classmates have told them they are going to be thrown out of the country.
Children are showing up in emergency rooms alone because their parents are afraid of being picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they show their faces. Even American-born children are suffering - one boy in the south-east asked a doctor for Prozac because he was worried about his undocumented friend.
"It's as though a volcano erupted. It's been awful," said Mimi Lind, director of behavioral health at the Venice Family Clinic, one of the largest providers of healthcare to low-income families in southern California. "People who don't have a history of anxiety and depression are coming forward with symptoms they've never had before. And people who had those symptoms already are getting much worse."
It's too soon to put precise figures on the wave of Trump-related anxiety, but health professionals and immigrant rights groups say it is unmistakable. "People worry their families will be broken up, that parents will be deported and children will end up in foster care, on a scale that we've never seen before. The feeling out there is one of great fear," said Marielena Hincapie of the National Immigration Law Center.
In addition to his own comments, Trumps' nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), an anti-immigration hardliner, to be the next Attorney General has only increased those fears. Beyond the worries about what might happen to older family members, many teenagers and young adults from immigrant families--namely those brought to the US as minors and known as DREAMers--are also facing uncertainty about what the future holds for them.
Feeling somewhat protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)--an executive order issued by President Obama--many of those young people are increasingly unsure of what will happen when the Republicans take full control of Congress and Trump arrives in the White House.
Twenty-year-old Josue De Luna, a student living in New Mexico, told the Albuquerque Journal that whatever happens after Trump's inauguration, he and other immigration rights advocates are bracing for a fight.
"We are concerned about our future, but we are definitely here to stay," De Luna told the Journal. "This is our home. It's going to be four years of intense fighting and trying to protect all the progress the immigrant movement has accomplished."
But as some prepare to fight back, those working in immigrant and low-income communities say it is becoming increasingly hard to assure anxious residents that everything will be okay.
Lind, the behavioral health specialist who spoke with the Guardian, says that the anticipation of what Trump and the Republicans might do is "the most anxiety-provoking" aspect of the current moment.
"No one can say anything," she said. "We have no way of allaying people's anxiety with concrete facts."
Urgent. It's never been this bad.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission from the outset was simple. To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It’s never been this bad out there. And it’s never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed and doing some of its best and most important work, the threats we face are intensifying. Right now, with just two days to go in our Spring Campaign, we're falling short of our make-or-break goal. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Can you make a gift right now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? There is no backup plan or rainy day fund. There is only you. —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
After a campaign built on xenophobic remarks, a pledge to construct a massive wall across the southern border, and promises to form "a deportation force" to rid the nation of millions of undocumented immigrants, it's not surprising the psychological impact of Donald Trump's rhetoric would be most sharply felt among those living within those communities.
"People worry their families will be broken up, that parents will be deported and children will end up in foster care, on a scale that we've never seen before. The feeling out there is one of great fear." --Marielena Hincapie, National Immigration Law Center
And now, with the reality setting in that Trump will soon by the President of the United States, the Guardian reports Friday how pediatricians serving in communities with large populations of undocumented immigrants are seeing a spike in anxiety-related physical illnesses, most notably among children expressing worry that they, their parents, or other loved ones will soon be arrested or deported.
As the Guardian's Andrew Gumbel reports:
One little boy in North Carolina has been suffering crippling stomach aches in class because he's afraid he might return home to find his parents gone. In California, many families are reporting that their children are leaving school in tears because their classmates have told them they are going to be thrown out of the country.
Children are showing up in emergency rooms alone because their parents are afraid of being picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they show their faces. Even American-born children are suffering - one boy in the south-east asked a doctor for Prozac because he was worried about his undocumented friend.
"It's as though a volcano erupted. It's been awful," said Mimi Lind, director of behavioral health at the Venice Family Clinic, one of the largest providers of healthcare to low-income families in southern California. "People who don't have a history of anxiety and depression are coming forward with symptoms they've never had before. And people who had those symptoms already are getting much worse."
It's too soon to put precise figures on the wave of Trump-related anxiety, but health professionals and immigrant rights groups say it is unmistakable. "People worry their families will be broken up, that parents will be deported and children will end up in foster care, on a scale that we've never seen before. The feeling out there is one of great fear," said Marielena Hincapie of the National Immigration Law Center.
In addition to his own comments, Trumps' nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), an anti-immigration hardliner, to be the next Attorney General has only increased those fears. Beyond the worries about what might happen to older family members, many teenagers and young adults from immigrant families--namely those brought to the US as minors and known as DREAMers--are also facing uncertainty about what the future holds for them.
Feeling somewhat protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)--an executive order issued by President Obama--many of those young people are increasingly unsure of what will happen when the Republicans take full control of Congress and Trump arrives in the White House.
Twenty-year-old Josue De Luna, a student living in New Mexico, told the Albuquerque Journal that whatever happens after Trump's inauguration, he and other immigration rights advocates are bracing for a fight.
"We are concerned about our future, but we are definitely here to stay," De Luna told the Journal. "This is our home. It's going to be four years of intense fighting and trying to protect all the progress the immigrant movement has accomplished."
But as some prepare to fight back, those working in immigrant and low-income communities say it is becoming increasingly hard to assure anxious residents that everything will be okay.
Lind, the behavioral health specialist who spoke with the Guardian, says that the anticipation of what Trump and the Republicans might do is "the most anxiety-provoking" aspect of the current moment.
"No one can say anything," she said. "We have no way of allaying people's anxiety with concrete facts."
After a campaign built on xenophobic remarks, a pledge to construct a massive wall across the southern border, and promises to form "a deportation force" to rid the nation of millions of undocumented immigrants, it's not surprising the psychological impact of Donald Trump's rhetoric would be most sharply felt among those living within those communities.
"People worry their families will be broken up, that parents will be deported and children will end up in foster care, on a scale that we've never seen before. The feeling out there is one of great fear." --Marielena Hincapie, National Immigration Law Center
And now, with the reality setting in that Trump will soon by the President of the United States, the Guardian reports Friday how pediatricians serving in communities with large populations of undocumented immigrants are seeing a spike in anxiety-related physical illnesses, most notably among children expressing worry that they, their parents, or other loved ones will soon be arrested or deported.
As the Guardian's Andrew Gumbel reports:
One little boy in North Carolina has been suffering crippling stomach aches in class because he's afraid he might return home to find his parents gone. In California, many families are reporting that their children are leaving school in tears because their classmates have told them they are going to be thrown out of the country.
Children are showing up in emergency rooms alone because their parents are afraid of being picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they show their faces. Even American-born children are suffering - one boy in the south-east asked a doctor for Prozac because he was worried about his undocumented friend.
"It's as though a volcano erupted. It's been awful," said Mimi Lind, director of behavioral health at the Venice Family Clinic, one of the largest providers of healthcare to low-income families in southern California. "People who don't have a history of anxiety and depression are coming forward with symptoms they've never had before. And people who had those symptoms already are getting much worse."
It's too soon to put precise figures on the wave of Trump-related anxiety, but health professionals and immigrant rights groups say it is unmistakable. "People worry their families will be broken up, that parents will be deported and children will end up in foster care, on a scale that we've never seen before. The feeling out there is one of great fear," said Marielena Hincapie of the National Immigration Law Center.
In addition to his own comments, Trumps' nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), an anti-immigration hardliner, to be the next Attorney General has only increased those fears. Beyond the worries about what might happen to older family members, many teenagers and young adults from immigrant families--namely those brought to the US as minors and known as DREAMers--are also facing uncertainty about what the future holds for them.
Feeling somewhat protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)--an executive order issued by President Obama--many of those young people are increasingly unsure of what will happen when the Republicans take full control of Congress and Trump arrives in the White House.
Twenty-year-old Josue De Luna, a student living in New Mexico, told the Albuquerque Journal that whatever happens after Trump's inauguration, he and other immigration rights advocates are bracing for a fight.
"We are concerned about our future, but we are definitely here to stay," De Luna told the Journal. "This is our home. It's going to be four years of intense fighting and trying to protect all the progress the immigrant movement has accomplished."
But as some prepare to fight back, those working in immigrant and low-income communities say it is becoming increasingly hard to assure anxious residents that everything will be okay.
Lind, the behavioral health specialist who spoke with the Guardian, says that the anticipation of what Trump and the Republicans might do is "the most anxiety-provoking" aspect of the current moment.
"No one can say anything," she said. "We have no way of allaying people's anxiety with concrete facts."