Parents, teachers, counselors and health care workers across the Twin Cities say many Minnesota children are living in fear or seeing those fears realized. They worry loved ones will be taken away, that they’ll witness violence, or get hurt themselves.
“Every single patient I saw yesterday, we had some discussion over the increased stress, trauma, worry, anxiety, depression that is stemming from the presence of ICE in our communities,” says Dr. Razaan Byrne, a Minneapolis-based pediatrician at Children’s Minnesota, a pediatric health system.
Byrne says fear is manifesting in the ways children are behaving. Some are having emotional outbursts. Others are regressing in milestones: Children who were potty trained, for instance, are wetting the bed again. And many are asking troubling questions.