In her pediatrics practice in Winston Salem, North Carolina, Julie Linton has seen several young patients who she believes are psychologically suffering from President Donald Trump’s tough stance on immigrants.
One 9-year-old boy came in with headaches, which Linton said started when “he was being told in school that his parents would be sent back to their country of origin.” Another patient, a 15-year-old girl, began experiencing panic attacks in crowds because she feared she would be separated from her parents.
“It comes down to two points: Parents are scared,” Linton said, “and children might not understand why their lives are in turmoil, but knowing their parents are scared makes them scared, too.”
In the past few days, Trump has shown his anti-immigrant rhetoric on the campaign trail was not just talk. On Wednesday, he issued an executive order that threatens to pull federal funding from “sanctuary cities,” or those that don’t turn over immigrants charged with minor crimes to the federal authorities. He also ordered the revival of a George W. Bush-era program that would step up the identification and deportation of undocumented immigrants, potentially sweeping up anyone who has simply signed a contract with an American employer.
[For more of this story, written by Olga Khazan, go to https://www.theatlantic.com/he...ation-threat/514718/]
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