• Sandro Galea

    Sandro Galea is the Robert A. Knox Professor and dean of the BU School of Public Health. He can be reached at sgalea@bu.edu. Follow him on Twitter: @sandrogalea. Profile

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There are 9 comments on POV: Harm of Border Separations Will Haunt US Future

  1. If parents don’t want to be separated from their children they should try LEGAL migration. I’m all about keeping families together, it was a stupid policy, now it’s over. Our broken immigration system could be fixed easily if employers were fined heavily for hiring illegals and jail time was possible instead of the slap on the wrist they currently get. The bottom line is both parties don’t want to really fix illegal immigration. The Democrats have a large Hispanic base that they need the support of and also want new future hispanic voters and the Republicans want to turn a blind eye to businesses that need cheap labor and worry about being seen as weak on immigration if they expand any type of legal temporary work visas. Expect this issue to stay unresolved because it inherently benefits both political parties to do so.

    1. Gangs show up at your home and haunt you everywhere you try to go, the want your life, they’ll cut off your kids toes in front of you, your only option is to escape in the middle of the night, spend all your money on a coyote who may rat you out to the gangsters, they may force you to carry drugs or another toe comes off, so you run and escape into the desert. You manage to survive and get to the border, you are called an illegal, you are chastised for showing up how you did, no one knows what you went through…and then your children get taken away and separated from you and maybe put into cages.

      Have some compassion, John. You may think you’re smart, commenting on the political process from a computer, but these are real lives being tossed around. You aren’t a bad person, and yes our system is “broken”, but unless you are a politician, your game isn’t politics, that’s only keeping you more disconnected from these real lives. Come back to life, man. Love you.

    2. John is right and claiming he has no compassion is simply wrong and insulting to his integrity.

      Argumentum ad hominem and argumentum populum are two logical fallacies that have no place any serious discussion about this issue.

      Congress has been tossing this hot potato around far too long and it is their responsibility to solve the problem as soon as possible. If they will not do so before the midterm elections then we the people should vote them all out.

    3. “if employers were fined heavily for hiring illegals and jail time was possible”

      Hah, that’ll almost certainly never happen. Everyone turns a blind eye to employers’ insatiable need for cheap labor. Pres Strumpet will huff & puff on immigration, but won’t do anything significant to raise labor costs of his ultra-wealthy ilk. Of course, small-scale businesses need cheap labor too, but Repugs only listen to their mega-donors.

  2. Thank you, Dean Galea, for this important perspective. We need to continue to talk about the long-term effects and trauma these separations will have for the children. On WGBH radio last night, the granddaughter of a man who was separated from his family in 1930 as they immigrated from China talks about the lasting impact of this trauma. Although he remained in the U.S., eventually serving in WW2, the feelings of shame and being unwelcome in this country stayed with him until his death. The story can be found here: https://www.pri.org/programs/the-world. Scroll down to FAMILY SEPARATION IN 1930.

  3. Many thanks for this sobering assessment of one of the worst aspects of the current US immigration policy. Courageous voices such as yours, backed up by facts, are ever more necessary as our country leans perilously towards variants of fascism.

  4. This has been the law since 2002 and separation occurred under Clinton & Obama. Why is it only now an issue? Stop with your selective politics and start being fair. Why can’t we fix the immigration system? Because the Democrats vote NO unanimously every time.

  5. Refreshing to read a long-term perspective for a change, rather than one that lays blame on “the other”. Immigration is important for a vibrant society, culture and economy. Assisting those who live in conditions far worse than most Americans can imagine is the right and humane thing to do.

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