Several organizations representing over 250,000 doctors in the United States have issued statements condemning the new US policy of separating immigrant children from their parents when crossing the US border with Mexico, according to this article from CNN.
"The effect of this type of event will follow these children into adulthood and into their entire lives," Dr. Ana Maria Lopez, president of the American College of Physicians, told reporters Thursday. "Our federal government is causing a situation that is creating a host of potential health consequences for an entire category of people."
Dr. Colleen Kraft, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, has issued statements and sent letters to the US Department of Homeland Security warning against the serious long- and short-term health consequences that separation may have on these children. Kraft refers to toxic stress and its impacts on child brain development in her Association's statements and other medical associations have also cited "voluminous research" indicating that parental separation is harmful to children.