Response to Family Separation at the Border

 
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RESPONSE TO FAMILY SEPARATION AT THE BORDER

TRACY SANSON, MD, FACEP

First, do no harm.

This is the oath we take with solemnity as physicians knowing that lives will be placed in our care. We accept this responsibility. We make a vow.

First, do no harm.

At our country's southern border, there is harm— what many physicians fear is harm beyond repair.

Children are being forcibly separated from their parents as a result of the “zero-tolerance” immigration policy introduced earlier this year by the Trump administration.

Our fellow physicians around the country are decrying this practice as dangerous to the physical and mental well being of the families involved.

Stop the practice of family separation now.

Children are children— no matter their nationality or location.

What can we do?

  • Senate Democrats support the Keep Families Together Act, a bill that would end the practice of separating children from their parents at the border. As of this writing, no Republican senators have endorsed the bill. If you have Republican senators, call them. Demand that they do everything in their power to end the current policy of family separation.

  • Write Congress in under 2 minutes. Text the word RESIST to Resistbot on Telegram, Messenger, Twitter or to 50409 on SMS*. It will connect you with your representatives and deliver your message to them in under 2 minutes.

  • Make a donation to organizations that fight family separation and provide aid to immigrants and asylum seekers. Consider funding the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, the ACLU, or Kids In Need of Defense.

  • Protest family separation at the White House or in sister marches around the country on June 30th. Follow Families Belong Together updates from for information.

First, do no harm. Next, seek to end pain and injustice.

Families belong together. Let us work together tirelessly to keep them together and to see those currently separated reunited at last.  

 

Tracy Sanson