PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Maria Hernandez, Social Work Student and Impacted Parent
2:53:54
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3 min
Maria Hernandez, a social work student and impacted parent, shares her personal experience of having her daughter removed from her care at 4 months old. She describes the emotional impact of family separation on both the child and parents, highlighting the lasting effects even after reunification.
- Hernandez emphasizes the importance of parent-child bonding and secure attachment in early infancy.
- She details the behavioral changes observed in her daughter during and after the separation period.
- Hernandez advocates for mental health services for both children and parents affected by family separation, stressing the need for long-term support and understanding.
Maria Hernandez
2:53:54
Hi.
2:53:54
Hi.
2:53:54
Good afternoon.
2:53:55
My name is Maria Hernandez.
2:53:57
I'm a social work student, and I am also an impacted parent.
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My daughter was removed from my care at 4 months, a critical stage for us to bond and form a secure attachment.
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The American Academy of Pediatrics states that family separation can have irreparable harms, having lasting emotional consequences and affect their long and short term health.
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People believe the idea that because the child is still an infant, they will have no recollection of events.
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Even though the brain doesn't remember, the body holds memory.
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Her body language, facial expressions, and cry would tell another story.
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Every time my partner and I left a visit, confusion would help will fill her face.
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She would cry and become inconsolable.
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Almost every single day, I would receive FaceTime calls from the foster parent because she acknowledged that the people my daughter wanted was her parents.
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The time that my daughter spent away from us was 10 months, but felt like an eternity.
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Throughout the time, she was able to form a bond with her aunt and her cousins who call her their sister.
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But once she was reunited with us, it also added an additional impact because of the bonds that she formed with them.
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She went from crying because she wanted to see me to crying because she wanted to see them.
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I am somebody who enjoys capturing every single moment on camera.
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Like any other mother, my camera roll is full of thousands of pictures of her.
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As I look back at those 4 1st 4 months that she was in my care, I see a very happy child.
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I call her first smile ever on my phone.
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I look at all the times she laid on my chest and would fall asleep.
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I look at the times that she was with her father cuddled up in his chair.
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When I look at the pictures that I took of her when she was out of my care, that is not the same baby I knew.
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She would be expressionless, look to the side in a daze, and have a frown on her face.
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Now my partner and I dedicate every single minute of the day making up for last time for lost time.
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She smiles in every picture we take.
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She enjoys playing, eating meals together as a family, and more, but there are still ripple effects that we deal with because of her removal.
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She cries in the night and says, mommy, daddy, in her sleep.
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When her father is at work, she says, mommy, where's daddy?
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And vice versa.
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She clings to me, follows me around everywhere, and in order for her to fall asleep, she needs my arm over her.
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Even in a deep sleep, if she feels my arm move, she wakes up and puts it over her again.
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Sometimes, for her to fall asleep, she puts her face right next to mine.
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She craves a closeness.
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And as her mother, I can't help but pinpoint it to the time we spend away.
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Not only do children need therapy, but so do the parents of these children.
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We are expected to go from a minimum of 1 hour of visitation to being full time parents once again after months of separation.
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From the beginning, we are looked down upon, treated inhumanely, and assumptions of us are already made.
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We deal with the long and short term impacts that family separation has on our children, not the preventive service workers, ACS, or anybody else.
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You know, workers, ACS, or anybody else.
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I'm gonna wrap it up.
Althea V. Stevens
2:56:43
Thank you.
Maria Hernandez
2:56:44
It is essential for parents to also be given a space to talk about their case and how it made them feel without the fear of this information being reported to case workers, it is essential for not just children, but parents to have free, quality, noninvasive mental health services available when they are ready to process the family separation they went through because the grief that we experience is not linear and does not stop.
2:57:06
Thank you.
