The consequences of US Immigration policies on children

We'll get an update on child separations at the border, discuss the immigrant detention facility right here in Pa., and talk about the psychological consequences these have.

Listen 49:01
Activists have been calling for the Berks Center to be shut down for years. Tuesday, a county commissioner announced he agrees.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Activists have been calling for the Berks Center to be shut down for years. Tuesday, a county commissioner announced he agrees. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Guests: Lee Gelernt, Bridget Cambria, Madeleine Dean, Allyson Macky

Today on Radio Times: the impact of US immigration policy on children. We’ll speak with ACLU’s LEE GELERNT, who says that more than 900 migrant children have been separated from their families, even after a Federal court ordered an end to the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. Then, we’ll look at an immigrant detention facility in our own region, the Berks County Detention Center and the renewed calls to shut it down. We’ll talk with ALDEA lawyer BRIDGET CAMBRIA, who represents many of the migrant families being held there, and with U.S. Representative MADELEINE DEAN, who recently made a surprise visit to the Berks Center.  We’ll also discuss the psychological consequences of detention and family separation on children with ALLYSON MACKEY, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.

WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.

Want a digest of WHYY’s programs, events & stories? Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Together we can reach 100% of WHYY’s fiscal year goal