At a US House of Representatives Hearing on Migrant Family Separation Policy, Jack P. Shonkoff, M.D. (Director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University) gave testimony on the impacts of family separation on children, highlighting the "strong scientific consensus supported by decades of peer-reviewed research" that "sudden, forcible separation of children from their parents is deeply traumatic for both the child and the parent," triggering "a massive biological stress response." Shonkoff's testimony outlines two core scientific concepts:
- A strong foundation for healthy development in young children requires a stable, responsive, and supportive relationship with at least one parent or primary caregiver.
- High and persistent levels of stress activation (known as “toxic stress”) can disrupt the architecture of the developing brain and other biological systems with serious negative impacts on learning, behavior, and lifelong health.
The testimony describes the ways in which the current US family separation policy is damaging to children. "From a scientific perspective," says Shonkoff, "the initial separation and the lack of rapid reunification are both indefensible. Forcibly separating children from their parents is like setting a house on fire. Prolonging that separation is like preventing the first responders from doing their job."