'Indelible Impact' — Part II
Karen Falla is a news reporter currently working for Univision, Channel 23 in Dallas, Texas. She covers diverse issues that affect the Hispanic community from immigration to health and education. This project was reported as a project for the 2015 National Health Journalism Fellowship.
Other parts of this series include:
ANCHORS:
On their journey north, the loneliness and the adjustment to a new reality produce a psychological trauma that represents a challenge for children who crossed the border by themselves.
And In part two of this story, Karen Falla tells us about the traumatic events that left and indelible impact on these minors.
TITLE: “INDELIBLE IMPACT”
REPORTER:
“Border children” filled headlines in 2014 following an unprecedented exodus from Central America.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE:
“People would ask me, who are you hanging out with, who are you going with.”
REPORTER:
Presently, many live in North Texas with parents or guardians. Youngsters like Samuel, 16, arrived on their own, in this case fleeing the "maras" in Honduras.
SAMUEL, HONDURAN IMMIGRANT:
“I had made up my mind since little, in reality I had a purpose in life: to become a great crook, a great drug dealer or something like that, because that was all I would see all the time.”
REPORTER:
Violence left an indelible impact on him.
SAMUEL, HONDURAN IMMIGRANT:
“All that traumatized my mind, all that I would see… I truly planted many things in my heart and in my mind.”
REPORTER:
Overcome with fear, Samuel decided to head north in a journey by land that would take him to Texas, where he was apprehended and turned over to a relative.
Unfortunately, he was a victim of new abuses and ended up under the care of child protective services.
SAMUEL, HONDURAN IMMIGRANT:
“I had already thought about taking a lot of pills because life didn't make any sense to me, you understand, with all the things that I had gone through. Man, I would say, that is life.”
REPORTER:
Negative experiences in such short lives have caused them mental health issues.
JENNIFER, SALVADORAN IMMIGRANT:
“I cut myself, I cut my skin like this, I inflicted damage to myself.”
REPORTER:
Jennifer arrived alone from El Salvador after 11 of not seeing her mother. Upon arrival she met her new sister, with whom it has been difficult to live.
JENNIFER, SALVADORAN IMMIGRANT:
“It was very hard to get along with her because back in El Salvador I was an only child, I didn’t have siblings or someone to play with.”
REPORTER:
Immigrant children’s mental health problems are handled by clinics operated by the Dallas school district and that provide a complete system of emotional support.
LYNNIE SMITH, DIRECTOR OF YOUTH AND FAMILY SERVICES, DALLAS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT
“But we have a lot of immigrant children that come see us, as well as a lot refugee children, and so we have a lot of depression and anxiety that we are working with.”
REPORTER:
Specialists argue that trauma generates mental issues that need to be detected and treated in a timely matter.
LYNNIE SMITH, DIRECTOR OF YOUTH AND FAMILY SERVICES, DALLAS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT
“They could have witnessed murder, they could have experienced abuse, physical, mental… hunger. The death of a love one.”
REPORTER:
Minors also face the tough decisions taken by immigration courts.
ANDREA AGUILAR, ATTORNEY WITH GRUPO RAÍCES:
“There, more than anywhere else, is where we see them crying and all that. When they tell what happened to them when they left the country, or when they speak of their parents’ neglect and abandonment, or the abuse. And then again in front of a judge, because they have to relive what happened to them several times.”
REPORTER:
These children's inner struggle is just beginning. Whatever is done now to try to prevent the consequences of trauma will determine the future they will have as adults. In part three of the story we will talk about opportunities and hopes for these minors.
[This story was originally published by Univision.]