WASHINGTON — The Health and Human Services official responsible for helping to reunite families separated by the Trump administration said Thursday he had warned colleagues that separating children from their parents would cause lasting, serious psychological trauma.

Commander Jonathan White of the U.S. Public Health Service testified before a House subcommittee looking into the “zero-tolerance policy” last April that resulted in the separation of more than 2,700 children. He served as the deputy director for the office that oversees migrant children, and was brought back from another post to oversee reunification efforts.
The hearing reflected the priorities of newly empowered Democrats who took control of the House in January. Democrats were sharply critical of President Donald Trump’s family separation policy and though the policy has ended, they continue to press for answers about how it came to be.
“There is no evidence that HHS leaders ever tried to stop this abhorrent policy,” said subcommittee leader Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat. “As the agency dedicated to the health and welfare of children, we need to know why.”
White said he attended briefings on the possibility of separating children in 2017, but was told there was no policy in place. He said he learned of the zero tolerance policy from a news conference given by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
White said he was not aware that anyone the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services knew the policy was coming. White led the HHS effort to reunify children with their parents. The department made White available to the committee after HHS Secretary Alex Azar chose not to attend.
Health and Human Services agencies manage the care of migrant children in the U.S., including those separated from their parents at the border. The vast majority of children under their care, tens of thousands, cross the border alone.

Separations Were Met With Mass Outrage

“Separating children poses significant risk of traumatic psychological injury to the child,” White testified. He said neither he nor anyone he worked with “would ever have supported such a policy.”
The separations were met with mass outrage from religious leaders, lawmakers and health officials who called them inhumane. They were stopped June 20 when Trump issued an executive order. A federal judge ruled about a week later that the children had to be reunified with their parents.