Migrant children could suffer most under Trump's plan: advocates

NEW YORK, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- As U.S. President-elect Donald Trump continues to name people to his cabinet and strategizes how to fulfill his many tough-on-immigration promises, immigrant advocates and attorneys worry that one group will receive an outsized share of the punitive initiatives: children, reported USA Today on Wednesday.

"Whether a return to family separations at the border or breaking up or deporting mixed-status families in U.S. cities, advocates said the incoming Trump administration could unleash a slew of challenges to children in the U.S.," said the report.

Immigrant advocates also worry that mass deportations promised by Trump on the campaign trail would lead to families being separated, as one or both parents are deported, while children, some of them U.S. citizens, stay behind, according to the report.

Splitting up families who are deported would leave psychological trauma that could be passed down from one generation to the next, said Charles Nelson, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, who has studied the impact of family separations on children.

One of the most controversial practices during Trump's first term was separating families at the border under the administration's "zero tolerance" policy. The separations, designed to deter illegal border crossings, sparked a national backlash, as video images of toddlers crying for their parents in holding facilities circulated through the media.