AOC: U.S. Must Have ‘Lifelong Commitment’ to Migrant Children—Healthcare Services for Life

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said over the weekend that the United States government must have a “lifelong commitment” to illegal immigrant migrants separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border and provide “mental healthcare services” to them “for the rest of their lives.”

Speaking at a town hall event in Queens, New York, Ocasio-Cortez, who has referred to migrant detention centers as “concentration camps,” reportedly argued that the U.S. government must make a “lifelong commitment” to migrant children because “even if you separate a kid from their parents for two days, you have already created life-long lasting trauma.”

“I believe we have responsibility to provide mental healthcare services to those children for the rest of their lives,” Ocasio-Cortez said, according to a Guardian report. “And there are children who have been separated that we have reunified, and it took about a year to reunify some of these kids with their parents. Lifelong trauma for which we, the United States, are responsible… And it chills me to my core to think about 20 years from now, when these kids grow up, the story that they will have about America.”

The freshman Democrat and “Squad” member also reportedly called for a 9/11-style commission to investigate the family separations, pointing out that the 9/11 commission was “charged with the investigating and making sure they dug out every nook and cranny of what happened and how it happened in our system.”

“And I think that that kind of study is what’s going to be required in order to reunite as many children with their parents as possible. That’s the work that we have to do,” she reportedly added.