This article from CNN describes findings from new report outlining the impacts of family separation on migrant children in the US. "A report released Wednesday includes accounts of facility staff detailing the inconsolable crying of children when they were separated, the kids' confusion and belief they had been abandoned by their parents," says the article. The report reviewed the mental health needs of children in the detention facilities, interviewing staff members tasked with caring for them.
"Children who did not understand why they were separated from their parents suffered elevated levels of mental distress," the report says. "A 7-or-8-year-old boy was separated from his father, without any explanation as to why the separation occurred," one program director told the inspector general. "The child was under the delusion that his father had been killed and believed that he would also be killed."