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- 11 - accessHealthNews.net December 2021 Volume 8 | Issue No. 52 This article was originally published in January 2021. A s a Mexican American and a part of the Latinx community, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Josh Morgan felt an obligation to serve at the U.S.-Mexico border. He admits there was an internal conflict trying to convince himself his occupation was honorable even though the immigration process needed to improve. Seeing people detain and separate families at the border is difficult, but he empathetically understands the need to stop individuals who seek to do harm from entering the U.S. It's safe to say Morgan has a unique perspective. He grew up in the foster care system, so he's keenly aware of the traumatic effects of family separation. To that end, his story helps shed light on how family separation is detrimental – whether in America's foster care system or on the border. When he was three years old, Morgan and his two-week-old brother were picked up by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) while dumpster diving for food. The two ended up separated and in foster care, with Morgan moving around every six months between Latinx and non-Latinx families. At age five, Morgan and his brother reunited with their tío and tía, happy to again be a part of a Spanish-speaking, Catholic Latinx family. However, as they neared the adoption finalization, their tía died of a heart attack and their tío was set to deploy for the Iraq war, sending them back to foster care. Eventually, Morgan's current parents heard about him and his brother and adopted them, and shortly thereafter they learned about and adopted several more siblings. While he ended up in a happy, loving, American family, he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and anxiety as well as Reactive Attachment Disorder, which affects all his relationships, not just romantic or familial. Throughout adolescence and into adulthood, he experienced trouble eating and sleeping as well as anger issues, which landed him in a lot of fights. People separated from family members at a young age suffer long-term traumatic effects, especially when paired with racial trauma Latinx people face throughout their lives. Morgan's experience in the American foster care system helped him bring an empathetic perspective to his time at the border as well as have a deeper understanding of what families being separated face long-term. A DAY IN BORDER SECURITY Morgan spent the winter of 2018 through early summer of 2019 patrolling the southeast Texas side of the U.S.-Mexico border, aiding and providing surveillance for Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). According to Morgan, the Army is not responsible for detaining those entering the U.S. illegally. Instead, they provide security and coordinate with CBP, but his specific mission was separate from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and did not see past the intake process. "When we talk about a country that is under the mantra of liberty and justice for all – while these people may be entering illegally, a lot of them are desperate, and the process of entering legally is something they don't necessarily have time for."

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