Whether they came to the U.S. alone, or were forcibly separated from their families at the border, despondent minors are often pressured into taking psychotropic drugs without approval from a parent or guardian.
by Caroline Chen and Jess Ramirez
Fleeing an abusive stepfather in El Salvador, Gabriela headed for
Oakland, California, where her grandfather had promised to take her in.
When the teenager reached the U.S. border in January 2017, she was
brought to a federally funded shelter in Texas.
Initially, staff described her as receptive and resilient. But as she
was shuttled from one Texas shelter to another, she became increasingly
depressed. Without consulting her grandfather, or her mother in El
Salvador, shelter staff have prescribed numerous medications for her,
including two psychotropic drugs whose labels warn of increased suicidal
behavior in adolescents, according to court documents. Still
languishing in a shelter after 18 months, the 17-year-old doesn’t want
to take the medications, but she does anyway, because staff at one
facility told her she wouldn’t be released until she is considered
psychologically sound.
Gabriela’s experience epitomizes a problem that the Trump
administration’s practice of family separation exacerbated: the failure
of government-funded facilities to seek informed consent before
medicating immigrant teenagers. Around 12,000 undocumented minors are in
custody of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of
Refugee Resettlement. The majority crossed the border unaccompanied,
while more than 2,500 were separated from their parents while Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy was in effect from April to June.
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Source: ProPublica
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