A Grand Rapids foster care agency that has been housing children separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border says they are “traumatized beyond belief.”
“We’re for keeping families together. That is first and foremost,” says Chris Paulsky, the president of Bethany Christian Services. “Families should never be separated. Secondly, putting families in detention centers is not the way to go either.”
Bethany Christian Services is one of two foster care agencies in the state that the United States Department of Refugee Resettlement sends children who have been separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. According to Bethany Christian Services, roughly 50 children in its Refugee Foster Care program were forcibly removed from their parents at the southern border.
“So when they get here, to say they are traumatized is an understatement,” Paulsky says. “They have been through hell on earth, I can’t express it.”
The forced separation of children from their parents at the Mexico-U.S. border has ignited intense debate over the White House’s current immigration policies. President Donald Trump meanwhile softened his position Wednesday, signing an executive order that allows children to remain with their parents.
So what does that mean for children who have already been separated from their families?
“There is a possibility that they would be reunited with their families, but there is a nuance there,” says Paulsky. “They nuance is that they would be in a detention center.”
While the vast majority of Democrats were opposed to separating families at the border, a number of Michigan Republicans have voiced their disapproval including Rep. Fred Upton and Rep. Bill Huizenga.
