Parental Deportation Research Articles

“Unduly Harsh?”: An Empirical Examination of Best Interests Assessments in the Context of Parental Deportation

Abstract Thousands of people are deported from the UK every year, having served a sentence for a serious criminal offence, it being determined that it is no longer in the public interest for them to remain in the UK. For those who are parents, they can appeal against deportation on grounds that it would breach their right to family life and have an unduly harsh impact on their children. Detailed guidance has emerged, setting out the factors that should be taken into account in determining this question in a manner that is compliant with children’s rights. Drawing on an in-depth analysis of a sample of deportation case files, this paper provides a unique empirical insight into the extent to which this guidance is applied in practice, with a particular reference to children’s rights principles and processes.

Crossing Clinical Borders: Anxiety and Depression in U.S. Citizen Children after Parental Deportation or Coercive Relocation

Crossing Clinical Borders: Anxiety and Depression in U.S. Citizen Children after Parental Deportation or Coercive Relocation

Well-being and contexts of development of U.S. citizen children in Mexico following parental deportation or voluntary relocation.

When undocumented immigrant parents are deported from the United States, they must decide whether or not to take their U.S.-born and undocumented immigrant children with them, often to countries the children have never visited or know little about. Other parents do not wait to be deported by the government and decide to relocate to their home countries with or without their children. Both sets of families experience relocation but under different circumstances. These differences deserve exploration to understand the psychological and emotional effects on children's well-being. In this cross-sectional study, we explored differences in self-concept, internalizing and externalizing behaviors, as well as the perception of the home, school, and neighborhood contexts of 178 U.S. citizen children (USCC) whose parents returned to Mexico forcibly and voluntarily. Through snowball sampling, we recruited the sample from two bordering Mexican states, Michoacán and the State of Mexico. Significant estimated marginal mean differences in internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, unhappiness, as well as parent-child conflict and support were found between USCC who relocated due to a parental deportation and those USCC whose parents relocated to Mexico voluntarily. Implications for clinicians in Mexico and the United States include recognizing the reasons, timing, decisions, events, and contexts of relocation. Findings can help inform immigration policies, practices, and future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceptions of the effect of parental deportation on adult intimate relationships.

Research has shown that children of undocumented Latinx parents in the United States are at greater risk for negative long-term effects on their mental health and overall well-being. Chief among these concerns are the negative effects of disrupted attachment processes, as deported parents are often taken from their families by force and required to parent from afar, if they can continue parenting at all. Despite the ubiquity of deported families, little is known about the effects of deportation on the attachment of left-behind children and the subsequent potential disruptive effect of deportation on their adult relationships. This phenomenological study aims to understand how adults who have experienced parental deportation in their childhood describe the effects of that event on their adult intimate relationships. Themes of (1) ambiguous loss; (2) inability to trust others; (3) fear of separation from loved ones; and (4) shame emerged and are discussed considering existing literature on attachment theory, immigration, and the Latinx population. Treatment implications are also discussed.

Things That Could Have Helped Me Cope: Adults Reflect on What They Needed as Children After the Deportation of a Parent

Experiencing parental deportation during childhood is associated with higher rates of mental health and behavioral health challenges. This adversity may be exacerbated by the uncertainty of what is happening to their deported parent and to their family system following a deportation experience. Effective clinical intervention can reduce the likelihood and/or severity of physical health, mental health and behavioral health difficulty caused by the trauma of parental deportation; however, clinicians have insufficient resources and guidance on effectively engaging with children and their families following parental deportation. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with English-speaking Latino individuals from the United States who experienced parental deportation between the ages of 6 and 17 ( n = 10). Using interpretive phenomenology analytic procedures, three major themes emerged related to participants’ experiences of their family after their parent’s deportation: (a) I wish I knew what was happening, (b) I wish people had checked in on my emotions, and (c) I wish people had been supportive and included us in the conversation. These findings are examined from an ambiguous loss framework to provide clinical implications of children’s needs after parental deportation. Suggestions are offered from the adults who lost their parent to deportation as a child about what they needed following their loss. By understanding what children need in these moments of crisis, practitioners, providers, and others are better prepared to address this form of complex childhood adversity.

Between the lines: A mixed-methods study on the impacts of parental deportation on the health and well-being of U.S. citizen children

ObjectiveTo explore the impacts of parental deportation on the health and well-being of U.S. citizen children of Mexican immigrants. MethodsFrom 2019–2020, this ambi-directional cohort study recruited U.S.-based families with an undocumented Mexican immigrant parent and U.S.-citizen childrens (ages 13–17) recently exposed to parental deportation (N = 61), and similar families without a history of parental deportation (N = 51). Children health, behavioral, economic, and academic outcomes were measured via phone surveys upon enrollment and six months later. A subsample of “exposed” caregivers (N = 14) also completed in-depth semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using fixed-effects regression models and thematic analyses. ResultsChildrens exposed to parental deportation had significantly worse health status, behavioral problems, material hardship, and academic outcomes than children in the control arm (p<.05). Caregivers’ interviews illustrated these health, behavioral, academic and family impacts. ConclusionsParental deportations have wide and potentially long-lasting health, behavioral, economic, and academic consequences for U.S. citizen youth. Changes in immigration policies and enforcement practices are urgently needed to protect the unity of mixed-legal status families in the U.S. and prevent the suffering of U.S. children in these families.

"It felt like hitting rock bottom": A qualitative exploration of the mental health impacts of immigration enforcement and discrimination on US-citizen, Mexican children.

Latino immigrant families in the United States were disproportionately affected by intensified interior immigration enforcement under the Trump administration. US-citizen children are victimized by policies targeting their immigrant parents; research is sparse regarding how these polices affect children who experience parental deportation and children who are at risk for parental deportation. Additionally, anti-immigrant rhetoric can result in increased discrimination that also threatens children's psychological health. This qualitative study (N = 22) explores children's lived experiences of discrimination, parental deportation or threat of parental deportation, and perceived impacts on mental health. Interviews conducted from 2019 to 2020 revealed that children who are directly affected by or at risk for parental deportation experience detrimental impacts to their psychological well-being. Children experience discrimination as Latinos and children of immigrants, which is also detrimental to their mental/emotional health. Incorporating children's perspectives is critical to informing public health interventions. Findings demonstrate the need for family-friendly immigration reform.

Adolescents de facto deported in Oaxaca, Mexico: Mental and emotional health impacts

This paper examines the experiences of adolescents from mixed migratory status families affected by deportation. We analyze the impacts on their mental and emotional health when they are separated from one parent in the United States, forcibly displaced with another to Oaxaca, and experience the consequences of their deportation in Mexico. We use a qualitative and ethnographic methodology. This paper focuses on data from semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 15 parents who had been deported from the United States and 53 adolescents who moved with them to Mexico. The data was collected between 2018 and 2020. The main findings show the existence of emotions that are sustained in the transnational flow and acquire new nuances upon return. They also show the emergence of new conditions related to family separation, all of which have an impact on the adolescents’ well-being and on important areas of their lives, such as education. The research contributes to knowledge in two main ways: 1) it addresses the impacts of parental deportation on the well-being of adolescents in mixed-status families, which have typically focused on children; 2) it studies how parental deportation affects the mental and emotional health of adolescents de facto deported to Mexico, a field still little studied.

Two pathways to Mexico: Forced deportation or voluntary return of parents and US citizen children.

Hundreds of thousands of undocumented Mexican immigrants were deported from the United States or returned to Mexico voluntarily in the past two decades, taking with them their US-born citizen children (USCC). A family's relocation-forced deportation or voluntary return-and the subsequent settlement and adjustment to Mexico affect everyone's well-being. We interviewed 18 USCC whose parents were forcibly deported and 18 whose parents returned voluntarily about their circumstances, experiences, and perceptions. Four categories of relocation and adjustment issues emerged. USCC with deported parents felt the sudden and harsh arrest, detention, deportation, and separation from parents, and family reunification after deportation. Those in the voluntary-return group told of concerns about the planned separation and relocation to Mexico. Both groups experienced issues of family reintegration and adjustment to a new environment. While relocation prompted similarities and differences in families' settlement, issues unique to families played a part in children's adjustment. Clinicians in both the United States and Mexico must take into consideration the nature of the relocation, families' distinctive reactions, and the individual child's experience as some USCC will remain in Mexico and others will return to the US Mexican clinicians will encounter USCC still settling and adjusting to Mexico, and USCC who decide to remain permanently in Mexico. US clinicians may encounter USCC facing the challenges of re-entering American society, joining educational institutions, and becoming part of the labor force. USCC forming families may feel the impact of their pasts in parenting dynamics.

The Intergenerational Health Effects of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program on Families With Mixed Immigration Status.

Children of undocumented mothers with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) have better mental health outcomes than children of DACA-ineligible mothers. This study explored the intergenerational health effects of DACA on undocumented parents and their children in families with mixed immigration status. Forty-eight semistructured interviews were selected from a study on life transitions of 50 undocumented immigrants. Prevalent themes related to the intergenerational health effects of DACA on undocumented immigrants were identified through thematic analysis of the transcripts, and quotes were selected to illustrate themes in the participants' own words. Thirty-three of the 48 respondents were DACA recipients. Twenty-six respondents were parents with a total of 61 children, 73.8% of whom were US-born. Four themes were identified: 1) DACA recipients reported decreased familial stress because of protection from deportation and increased access to health care, 2) both DACA and DACA-ineligible parents prioritized regular pediatrician visits for their children, but DACA-ineligible parents suffered from poor health because of decreased access to health care, 3) adults with DACA mirror the health behaviors of their DACA-ineligible parents, and 4) the poor health access of DACA-ineligible family members appeared to stress DACA recipients and US-born children in these families. DACA decreases children's fear of parental deportation and loss. However, the suffering of DACA-ineligible parents and family members may stress their children and influence their health-seeking behavior in adulthood. Health care access for all members of immigrant families needs to be examined, since their well-being impacts the well-being of their children.

Parental Deportation, Safe-Zone Schools, and the Socio-Emotional and Behavioral Health of Children Left Behind.

Over four million US-born children living in households with at least one unauthorized immigrant parent are the unintended victims of intensified immigration enforcement. In an effort to address these disadvantages, many schools and school districts throughout the country have implemented “safe-zone” policies to limit their cooperation with immigration authorities, restrict agents' access to campuses, and provide resources for students and their immigrant families. Using data from a binational survey that collected information on children from mixed-status households, we document positive and significant correlations between safe-zone policies and children's externalizing, internalizing, and total difficulties scores, as well as their prosocial behaviors.

‘Sentí que Alguien Murió’ (‘I felt someone died’): Ambiguous loss in the face of parental deportation

AbstractOver 16 million people in the United States belong to a mixed‐status family in which at least one member of their household is undocumented. The current study will explore adult reflections on childhood experiences of parental deportation in order to elucidate their meaning of the loss and if their experiences resemble an ambiguous loss. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was utilized to analyse in‐depth retrospective meaning‐making narratives of adult children who lost a parent to deportation. Findings indicate that the children of detained or deported parents experienced difficulty not knowing what was happening, believed their parents would return, and noted family practices that they found to be helpful or unhelpful in processing their loss.

Living Under the Shadows: Experiences of Latino Immigrant Families at Risk for Deportation

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to examine the experiences of Latino youth and their parents who are at risk for detainment or deportation to gain an in‐depth understanding of the impact of the risk for parental deportation on psychosocial well‐being.BackgroundChildren born in the United States to foreign‐born parents comprise approximately 27% of the U.S. population. Approximately 5.7 million U.S.‐born children live with parents without legal residency documentation, and nearly 500,000 children had at least one parent detained or deported over a 2‐year period. There is a high risk for negative child and family outcomes associated with parental deportation.MethodA constructivist grounded theory design was used to complete semistructured interviews with families (N = 16) at risk for parental deportation. A quantitative trauma assessment was used to triangulate qualitative findings.ResultsResults indicated four core themes: (a) parents and youth experience emotional distress associated with the risk of deportation, (b) parents and youth experience injustices associated with the threat of deportation, (c) children experience their freedoms as conditional, and (d) children suffer.ConclusionsConcepts from ambiguous loss and developmental trauma may aid our understanding of family emotional distress associated with the risk for deportation and improve family services aimed to promote family well‐being.ImplicationsFamily scholar‐advocate and scholar‐activist approaches, in which we use our positions of privilege to educate others about the needs of underserved families, may be helpful for families at‐risk for deportation.

“Trauma Makes You Grow Up Quicker”: The Financial &amp; Emotional Burdens of Deportation &amp; Incarceration

Abstract Research on the impacts of incarceration and deportation describes the negative consequences for children and young people. But how these events impact adults and members of extended families has not been broadly considered. And no study has directly compared incarceration with deportation. The study described in this essay, based on interviews with 111 adult individuals with a family member deported (57) or incarcerated (54), reveals how these experiences have long-lasting emotional and financial impacts and considers the similarities and differences between incarceration and deportation. The deportation or incarceration of parents is devastating; yet the absence of other relatives such as sons, sisters, brothers, aunts, cousins, grandchildren, and other household members also translates into severe sentimental and economic hardships not only for the immediate but also for the extended family.

Migranthood: Youth in a New Era of Deportation by Lauren Heidbrink

Reviewed by: Migranthood: Youth in a New Era of Deportation by Lauren Heidbrink Amelia Frank-Vitale Lauren Heidbrink. Migranthood: Youth in a New Era of Deportation. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2020. 213 pp. Thinking about my own sense of identity, I realise that it has always depended on the fact of being a migrant, on the difference from the rest of you. So one of the fascinating things about this discussion is to find myself centered at last. Now that, in the postmodern age, you all feel so dispersed, I become centered. What I’ve thought of as dispersed and fragmented comes, paradoxically, to be the representative modern experience! This is “coming home” with a vengeance! Most of it I much enjoy—welcome to migranthood. — Stuart Hall (1987:44) It is fitting that most scholars cite Stuart Hall as the coiner of the term, “migranthood.” In this essay, he discusses his own experience, as a migrant himself, of dispersal and fragmentation. His term, his description, come from expertise based on his own experience. This is one of the arguments at the heart of Lauren Heidbrink’s Migranthood: Youth in a New Era of Deportation. We must take seriously, she tells us, the expertise of young people who migrate and are deported to understand the nature of this condition of being a migrant, of migranthood. Migrant children, she holds, are too often discussed as either passive victims made vulnerable by the poor decisions of adults around them or as an inherently criminal, dangerous, invasive force that cannot be trusted and must be expelled. Heidbrink strives to trouble a public discourse that rests on these two polar but connected tropes by grounding an analysis of Indigenous Guatemalan youth migration in the narratives and reflections of, precisely, Indigenous Guatemalan youth migrants. [End Page 345] One of the core arguments of this book is that migranthood, or “how migration is socially constructed, practiced, and experienced” (5), is not an individual experience. Rather, the decision to migrate as well as the attendant risks and potential rewards are all familial, communal, collective. She makes this argument through detailing how the migration and deportation of children has ripple effects on parents, siblings, grandparents, friends and, conversely, how the migration and deportation of parents has ripple effects on children, families, communities. She reinforces this argument through a similar analysis of how the Indigenous communities in Guatemala where she works have come to experience migration; it is grounded in the historical experience of forced labor, internal labor migration, discrimination, state violence, and neoliberal extractivism. As a work of public scholarship, Migranthood does a remarkable job of weaving together statistical data, survey results, ethnographic storytelling, and history to offer a clear and compelling assessment of how the so-called crisis of unaccompanied minor migrants in 2014 (and the series of migration-related crises since then) is, as Heidbrink calls it, a crisis of policymaking. Importantly, Migranthood, points us toward what I think will be a new and necessary approach to deportation. While many of the stories Heidbrink includes involve the deportations of individuals who have lived for years in the United States, she also brings in the voices of youth (and in some cases their parents) who have been deported without ever having had the chance to arrive. While narratives of displacement and dis-orientation for those deported after making a life elsewhere (see Zilberg 2011, Coutin 2016, among others) have done the crucial work of showing how deportation is not a matter of returning out-of-place people back to their “natural” place (Khosravi 2018), the experiences of those deported without ever having “made it” are also rife with trauma and multiple, layered consequences. Migranthood shows us families and communities grappling with the full range of post-deportation experience, and like the story of Sebastián—who at 20, after three deportations from Mexico, falls into depression and dies of alcohol poisoning (163–164)—suggests that those who never arrive may be the least able to survive deportation. As the United States and other countries in the global North further harden their borders, restrict access to asylum and other forms of protection, and externalize migration enforcement, we will...

Deporting immigrant parents: Impact on the health and well-being of their citizen children

Abstract Background In the United States (U.S.), over 4 million citizen children live with an unauthorized immigrant parent who is at risk of deportation. Children of Mexican immigrants are disproportionately represented among this population, as 1 out of 3 deported immigrants are from Mexico. Parental deportation can have profound and long-lasting consequences for children, yet research on this topic is sparse. We present preliminary findings from an ongoing, longitudinal study examining changes in health, well-being, behavior, and environmental factors among U.S. citizen children of recently deported Mexican immigrants. Methods Forty-eight deported Mexican parents were recruited from deportation processing stations on the Mexican border region. We completed phone interviews with one of their U.S.-based, citizen children and an adult caregiver, collecting retrospective information on health, health behavior, household, academics, and socio-ecological health determinants from a year earlier, as well as shortly after deportation of their parent. Pre-post analyses of caregivers' survey data were conducted to assess changes in outcomes associated with parental deportation. Results Following deportation of their parents, children were reported to have more frequent health problems (p=.008), including mental health problems (p=.002), externalizing (p=.040) and internalizing (p=.011) behaviors, school absences (p=.092), and experiences of food insecurity (p=.007) than a year before. Academic expectations were also significantly worse (p=.006) than those prior to parental deportation. Conclusions Children are the unintended victims of indiscriminate immigration enforcement. Deportation of parents is associated with significant deterioration of physical and mental health, behavior, academics, and home environment for their U.S. citizen children. Our results call for immigration policy reform and interventions to support families affected by the deportation of a parent. Key messages Immigration policies that separate families can have significant detrimental impacts on the health and well-being of U.S. citizen children. Policies must be revised to keep families together and protect children in mixed-legal status families.

They just took him: Impacts of immigration enforcement on U.S. citizen Latino adolsecents’ well-being

Abstract Background Escalating interior immigration enforcement by the Trump administration threatens U.S. Latino immigrant families, yet systematic evidence is limited regarding the impacts of immigration enforcement in this community. Our study explored lived experiences of U.S.-citizen adolescents affected by various levels of immigration enforcement, including parental deportation. Methods In-depth interviews were conducted with adolescents (13-17 years old, N = 7) who experienced-or were at risk of-parental deportation as part of a larger, on-going longitudinal study. Interviews queried after their health, family life, perceived discrimination, conceptualization of today's anti-immigrant climate and, if applicable, the circumstances and impact of their parent's deportation. A preliminary qualitative analysis of the interviews was conducted. Interview summaries were created and reviewed systematically. Major themes and qualitative assertions were derived and discussed by the analytical team. Results Parental detainment/deportation was inherently violent and traumatic and had profound mental/emotional, physical, socio-cultural and economic consequences for separated adolescents as they assumed adult roles and responsibilities. The threat of deportation negatively affected the well-being of adolescents with deportable parents, resulting in increased vigilance and stress. Participants were ambivalent regarding their desire to talk about the risk of deportation or their experiences with it, as well as their own identities as Latinx citizens. They also reported feelings of isolation, discrimination and victimization related to immigration enforcement. Conclusions Anticipated and experienced parental deportation negatively affects health and well-being among U.S.-citizen adolescents. Family-friendly immigration policies, community-based interventions, and family counseling are critical to protect this vulnerable population. Key messages Following deportation, the deportee’s family—especially their U.S.-citizen adolescents—are profoundly and negatively affected. Even the threat of deportation stresses adolescents and their families and results in negative psychosocial outcomes.

Anchoring More than Babies: Children's Rights after Obergefell v. Hodges

The Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding a constitutional right to same sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges was a huge advance not just for LGBT Americans, but also for children. Obergefell suggests children have a fundamental right to be raised by their parents without being demeaned or marginalized by the state. This has important implications for other vulnerable children, including U.S. citizen children with undocumented parents. This Article argues that deporting these children’s parents contravenes their fundamental right to be raised by a loving parent, to equal protection of the law, and to remain in the United States as U.S. citizens. It explains the important shift in perspective on children’s rights suggested by the Obergefell decision and its implications for children with undocumented parents. It describes the current situation confronting U.S. citizen children whose parents lack legal immigration status and the unconstitutional harm they suffer when their parents are deported. It notes that three important constitutional rights are implicated: children’s substantive due process right to be raised by their parents, their right to equal protection of the laws, and their right under the Privileges and Immunities Clause to live in the United States. Finally, the Article discusses procedures to protect the rights of U.S. citizen children with undocumented parents. It concludes that executive action to prevent the deportation of parents of U.S. citizen children is clearly warranted. Given the fundamental rights of children that are at stake, the Article contends that mechanisms to prevent the deportation of U.S. citizen children’s parents are not only lawful, but perhaps constitutionally required.

Family Separation in the Sunshine State: Preparing for the Traumatic Impact and Economic Costs of Immigrant Parent Deportation on Florida’s Child Welfare System

Family separation as a result of parental deportation of immigrants living in the USA triggers both child and family trauma and economic impact to the state. A child’s separation from their parents is an adverse childhood experience that can induce depression, anxiety, and aggression and could create long-lasting negative impacts and reduce their likelihood of succeeding socially, academically, and economically. The implications of the influx of parents into the child welfare system for welfare authorities are discussed, highlighting Florida as an example. With respect to the economic repercussions in Florida, the projection of massive deportations due to federal immigration policies could overburden the child welfare system with an influx of children of deportees and concurrently encumber the state’s budget. Information regarding safeguards for families and the rights of parents and children under US law and international human rights covenants is provided. It is crucial for the child welfare system to re-evaluate protocols to reduce the psychological impacts on affected families, assure parental rights, and to secure the necessary resources to alleviate the anticipated economic burden. Recommendations and action steps for responding to separated families and immigrant children entering the child welfare system are offered.

“Family is Family Forever”: Perceptions of Family Changes After Deportation

Around 4.5 million U.S. citizen children are at risk of being separated from a parent due to deportation. This means that many citizen children who have a deported parent are growing up with fragmented families and long-distant parents. These children are often in the care of their remaining family members. Therapists need to understand what remaining family members can do to ease the transition for children and help them to make sense of their parent being deported. A retrospective lens is employed to explore adult experiences of their family post-deportation. Findings show that family went through a reorganization process after parental deportation which impacted how the child understood the deportation and affected the child’s perceptions and experiences of their parental loss. Implications are offered through the Family Resiliency Framework.