Sin Fronteras Nuevo Mexico

By Mary McPhail Gray
Board Chair

I wondered why some of my clients were acting more vigilant—and hyperalert?” commented a Taos Behavioral Health clinician in the Taos schools. Soon he had an explanation—ICE was in town.

While most of the attention and talking about undocumented residents is about adults — we at TBH see the evidence of how children and youth are impacted. At a minimum, a family with undocumented adults is often living in very small quarters with few resources to provide for their children. Adults who work usually make minimum wages and are often subjected to a variety of abuses in their employment.

The fear of deportation or of family separation is real. Some families work with Sin Fronteras Nuevo Mexico and Taos Immigrant Allies (TIA) to establish guardianship for their children in case the parents are arrested and taken away. The guardian assumes responsibility for the children’s needs until the parent is able to resume their primary role. This arrangement can be comforting to the children IF the selected guardian is well known to the children and the parents have thoroughly explained the circumstances to them. However, TBH clinicians have clearly heard children say that if their parents were deported, they naturally would want to go with them. [Read more…] about My Heart is Hurting: Things that Touch the Children

By Mary McPhail Gray
Board Chair

The trauma emanating from national news is felt by children in Taos—is heard in our schools, in our families, in our counseling offices. The images on TV, the comments by parents and older siblings are scary and often not understood by children.

”Why do those TV pictures have people with no faces? “

“Why are there pictures of adults and/or children huddled on the floor in a room?”

“Why are there pictures of adults and children wading across a river or lying dead along the shore?”

Even if parents carefully shield their children from the news images we all see—it is impossible for them not to overhear something of the trauma occurring in our country right now. As a border state, we have more action and reporting than other places might. Friends or classmates at school may be heard to express their fears—that their parents might be arrested—that they might come home to find them gone. Even if their family is not immediately impacted by current threats children can undoubtedly learn that there is fear and violence in the land. [Read more…] about What Should We Tell the Children?