Immigration Raids Research Articles

Parent-child border separation and the road to repair: addressing a global refugee phenomenon

ABSTRACT As a result of the Department of Homeland Security’s zero-tolerance policy (ZTP), over 5,000 children were separated from their parents at the U.S. southern border from 2017-2021, with over 1,000 still lacking confirmed reunifications. Separations also occur daily due to immigration raids, chaotic processing, and changing immigration policies. This article addresses the most fundamental question faced by families enduring such separations; how to mend attachment bonds that have been suddenly severed, especially within a population likely already traumatized. The paper begins by updating readers about separation in the United States and offers a concise summary of the consequences of child-parent separation. The paper then introduces Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) as an intervention for affected families. This paper also uniquely applies CPP to older children and provides three case examples of its use in treating separated families. Finally, the paper offers general suggestions for supporting these families.

Community resilience and intersections between sociopolitical and racial relations in the aftermath of immigration raids in Mississippi

ABSTRACT Immigration law enforcement operations can negatively affect communities, creating or exacerbating problems among Latinx immigrants. Community resilience perspectives enable examination of how communities overcome challenges created by disruptions. Resilience studies have shown power relations can affect collective responses. However, few studies exist about how politics and race can affect community responses. This study examines how sociopolitical and racial relations influenced community resilience in the context of large immigration raids. Twenty-six Latinx organizers and allies involved in community responses in the aftermath of these raids were interviewed. The findings show how politics intertwined with racism-shaped Latinx community resilience. After the raids, Latinx groups and allies mobilized collective agency to address problems created by the raids, challenged by political and racial dynamics. The findings also show creating more visibility and consciousness about Latinx communities could be an important step for strengthening inclusiveness and community resilience.

‘All my friends here are ghosts’: everyday geo-legalities in a rural poultry town

ABSTRACT In recent years, feminist legal geographers have pressed for deeper engagement with the lived experience of law’s spatial logics including methodologies that extend beyond the study of legal discourse, practice, and enforcement to include ethnographic and other qualitative approaches that centre the experiences of those living with legal precarity. Building upon the work of feminist political geographers concerned with intimacy geopolitics, the concept of everyday geo-legalities emphasizes the ways that people interpret the spatiality of law, legal practice, and state policing and how it affects their lives, livelihoods and im/mobilities. This research reveals how undocumented im/migrants in a small, rural poultry town interpret and socially negotiate their racialized legal status in terms of im/mobility, heighted workplace pressure, increased job-related health risks, persistent fears of immigration raids, family separation and deportation, and prejudice and policing due to discourses of racialized criminalization. Social and familial relations, however, are central to the everyday negotiation of these dynamics, as community connections and care emerge from experiences of marginalization. This paper thus emphasizes how social relations are central to analysing the complexities and contradictions of everyday legal geographies.

Childhood Parental Deportations, Immigration Enforcement Experiences, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among US-Born Latino Adults, 2021.

Objectives. To examine how having a parent deported in childhood and immigration enforcement encounters relate to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among a sample of US-born Latinos. Methods. In 2021, a national sample of 1784 US-born Latinos was recruited to complete a questionnaire. The questionnaire elicited data on sociodemographics, mental health, and immigration-related experiences. The dependent variable was past-year symptoms of PTSD. Immigration-related variables included (1) having a parent deported during their childhood, (2) having a (nonparent) family member deported, (3) fear of having a parent or loved one deported, (4) fear of immigration enforcement encounters, and (5) having experienced an immigration raid. A multivariable logistic regression was conducted to examine independent associations between immigration-related variables and PTSD. Results. Having a parent deported during childhood was associated with more than twice the odds of meeting criteria for PTSD symptoms. Having a loved one deported, fearing the deportation of a loved one, and having experienced an immigration raid were all associated with PTSD. Conclusions. It is imperative to better understand the long-term implications of immigration policies in perpetuating health inequities among US-born Latinos. (Am J Public Health. 2024;114(S6):S495-S504. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307660) [Formula: see text].

“Keeping Things under the Rug”: Racial Dynamics in the Context of Large Immigration Raids in Rural Mississippi☆

AbstractA large body of literature has evidenced racism and other challenges experienced by Latinx immigrants working in the food system and rural communities in the U.S. Despite a large number of studies showing complex and difficult realities experienced by Latinx immigrants, little has been studied about how immigration law enforcement operations impact Latinx communities and racial dynamics in rural communities. Analyzing 26 interviews with Latinx organizers and allies involved in community responses in the aftermath of large immigration raids, this study examines how the raids shaped racial dynamics and local actions to address Latinxs' problems. Findings show the immigration raids were seen as an “invasion” that created fear, distrust, and racial stigmatization among Latinx immigrants. After the raids, Latinx groups and allies mobilized resources for the affected families, contesting the binary racial order. However, community responses were challenged by white supremacy and racism that aimed to keep “things under the rug” by ignoring Latinxs' problems created and exacerbated by the immigration raids. These findings highlight unique characteristics of ongoing racialization processes in U.S. rural settings and illustrate how white supremacy and racism continue to shape what goes on within and outside rural communities.

Repercussions of a Raid: Health and Education Outcomes of Children Entangled in Immigration Enforcement

AbstractInterior immigration enforcement in the U.S. has rapidly increased over the past two decades, including increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity and the revival of workplace raids under the Trump administration. We contribute to the body of research that aims to better understand the consequences of immigration enforcement for children in targeted communities, including on their education, health, and socioemotional well‐being. We employ a mixed methods research design to investigate the effects of the sweeping April 2018 Morristown, Tennessee immigration raid on children's health and education outcomes. We utilize linked, longitudinal health and education data on children and a quasi‐experimental design to analyze the effects of the raid on those residing in close proximity to the raid. Interview data from community members and organizations in the affected area aid in better understanding how the raid unfolded and the mechanisms through which a community trauma such as this might affect children both directly and indirectly. Our results indicate negative effects across multiple education and behavioral health outcomes for children of immigrants living in the area targeted by the raid, including a substantial spike in absences from school in the month of the raid and significant increases in exclusionary disciplinary actions and in diagnoses of substance use disorder, depression, self‐harm, suicide attempts or ideation, and sexual abuse in the year following the raid.

Cumulative Experiences of Immigration Enforcement Policy and the Physical and Mental Health Outcomes of Asian and Latinx Immigrants in the United States

Immigration enforcement policies in the United States and other nations have long been enacted and implemented as intentional tools of racial control. There is mounting evidence that immigration raids, arrests, and deportations in the United States are associated with poor immigrant health outcomes, but this research has primarily focused on associations between health and single, specific enforcement actions or experiences that may not capture the entirety of immigrants’ experiences with racialized exclusion. Further, there has been little examination of Asian immigrants’ experiences with enforcement in the United States. This article assesses the relationship between Asian and Latinx immigrants’ physical and mental health and their cumulative experiences of immigration enforcement. We analyze responses to a 2018 population-based telephone survey of 1,103 Asian and Latin American immigrants in California. Participants were asked about seven distinct exclusionary immigration and local law enforcement experiences and their self-rated health (SRH) and psychological distress. We tested the association between each enforcement experience and SRH and psychological distress, controlling for covariates. After creating a cumulative measure of exclusion by summing participants’ total number of enforcement experiences, we examined the association between cumulative enforcement experiences and SRH and psychological distress and tested interactions by ethnicity and citizenship. While a greater proportion of Latinx than Asian participants reported enforcement experiences, each additional enforcement experience was associated with poorer self-rated health and greater psychological distress for both groups. This article suggests that the overall immigration enforcement system, from surveillance to deportation, is associated with worse health outcomes for immigrants.

'I like to protect my protector': How US-born Latinos safeguard the livelihood of their immigrant communities from immigration enforcement encounters.

Using a qualitative phenomenological design, the objective of this study was to explore in-depth how US-born Latinos provide social support to their immigrant counterparts during a time of heightened anti-immigrant rhetoric. A sample of 22 US-born Latino adult was recruited in 2019 for qualitative interviews, following a period of intense immigration raids. Eligible participants were adults who reported experiencing an immigration-related stressor and screened positive for a mental health concern or substance misuse. Open-ended questions focused on topics of immigration and health. Using a thematic analysis approach, interview transcripts were coded to identify common themes within the domains of social support: instrumental; informational; emotional; and appraisal. We found that US-born Latinos provide diverse forms of social support to immigrants with the intention of protecting them from immigration enforcement encounters (e.g. deportation), thereby safeguarding the livelihoods of their communities. US-born Latinos are integral pillars of support and resiliency for immigrant communities, and the domains identified within this study suggest important implications for immigrant health.

Immigration policies as political determinants of alcohol and drug misuse among US-born Latinos.

The role of immigration policies as political determinants of health among US-born Latinos is significantly understudied. Immigration policies can produce immigration-related stressors that have 'spill over' effects on the health behaviors of US-born Latinos. However, less is known about how immigration-related stressors relate to substance misuse among US-born Latinos. 1,784 US-born Latinos were recruited via web-panels in September 2021 to complete an online questionnaire. Inclusion criteria included: (1) self-identifying as Latino; (2) born in the US; and (3) being 18 years of age or older. Participants were asked 14-items related to immigration-related stressors and past-year substance use behaviors. Dependent variables included past-year: heavy drinking, high intensity drinking, illicit drug use, prescription drug misuse, cannabis use, cocaine use, methamphetamine use, prescription sedative misuse, and prescription opioid misuse. Two separate multivariable logistic regression models were conducted for each outcome to investigate associations between (1) specific immigration-related stressors and substance misuse; and (2) experiencing greater (vs. fewer) number of immigration-related stressors and substance misuse. On average, US-born Latinos reported experiencing 3 immigration-related stressors. In multivariable analyses, being fearful or worried about being detained for immigration reasons was associated with increased odds of engaging in heavy drinking, high intensity drinking, and illicit drug use. Having ever feared or worried about being potentially deported for immigration reasons and having ever witnessed or experienced an immigration raid was associated with high intensity drinking. Parental detentions and deportations in childhood were independently associated with high intensity drinking, illicit drug use, and prescription drug misuse. Notably, greater number of immigration-related stressor experiences increased the odds of substance misuse. Punitive immigration and enforcement policies give rise to multiple stressors that may render US-born Latinos vulnerable to misusing substances as a way of coping. Policies and public health interventions aimed at preventing and treating substance misuse should consider how immigration policies impact the behaviors of US-born Latinos.

The mixed-status community as analytic framework to understand the impacts of immigration enforcement on health

Social scientists are increasingly interested in the detrimental health impacts of immigration enforcement, including surveillance, arrest, detention, and deportation. In most empirical research—as well as the legal process itself—the family or household serves as the social unit for understanding ripple effects of immigration enforcement beyond the individual. While the mixed-status family analytic framework foregrounds the experiences of millions of individuals and valuably extended immigration scholarship to move beyond its heavy focus on individual behavioral choices, we argue that a continued reliance on the family as an analytic framework reproduces normative conceptualizations of kinship and care, obscures how the process of illegality is mediated by empire, racism, and (hetero)sexism, and risks reproducing narratives about the “deserving” immigrant. We propose the mixed-status community as an analytic framework to better understand the detrimental health impacts of immigration enforcement by accounting for the synergistic influence of 1) a fuller range of social and intimate relationships; 2) spatial arrangements of risk; 3) presumptions of immigration status; and 4) racialization of immigration law and enforcement practices. We draw on a case study of an immigration raid as well as contemporary examples to illustrate the added value of this analytic framework.

Put on ICE? Effects of Immigration Raids in the Animal Slaughtering and Processing Industry

The animal slaughtering and processing industry was the epicenter of work site immigration raids from 2006 to 2008 that were aimed at rooting out unauthorized immigrant workers in the United States. This study examines whether the industry shifted toward legal workers in the wake of the raids and whether wages, worker turnover, and other labor market outcomes changed as well. We find that the industry initially shifted toward legal foreign-born workers, particularly refugees, but the change faded over time. We also find a substantial increase in industry worker turnover, but not in average wages, at the national level.

Racialization, discrimination, and depression: A mixed-method study of the impact of an anti-immigrant climate on Latina immigrant mothers and their children

Grounded in an ecological transactional model, this mixed-method study describes the impact of the 2016 presidential election and ensuing anti-immigrant climate on Latina immigrant mothers (n ​= ​30) with authorized and unauthorized legal status and their children in New York City. Mothers’ narratives, collected between March and June 2019, indicate that the anti-immigrant climate precipitated family discussions about immigration, racism, ethnicity and legal status at home. Media coverage of anti-immigrant policies and immigration enforcement activities, threats of immigration raids via the news and social media, and bullying at school caused child distress and prevented mothers from delaying discussions about immigration with their children. Mothers were distressed not only due to worries about their own legal vulnerability, but also by the inability to assuage children’s distress. Mothers indicated that their children felt unsafe due to the immigration climate and had difficulties focusing in school. Mothers also indicated that, regardless of child age, their children experienced a range of separation anxiety symptoms including worry about being separated from loved ones and fear of being away from home. A significant proportion of mothers reported elevated symptoms of depression on the PHQ-2 (31%) and psychological distress on the Kessler-6 (26%). Quantitative analysis indicates that immigration-related discrimination contributes significantly to maternal depressive symptoms and psychological distress. Mothers’ narratives triangulate these quantitative findings; mothers conveyed feelings of disillusionment, sadness, anxiety, anger, distress and frustration due to experiences of discrimination at their children’s schools and due to an inability to access mental health supports for their children. Mixed methods inform our understanding of how a charged anti-immigrant political climate can affect parent-child-school interactions and the mental health of Latina immigrant mothers and their children. Implications are discussed.

Review: The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Expelling Immigrants, by Adam Goodman

Review: The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Expelling Immigrants, by Adam Goodman

Refugees and racial capitalism: Meatpacking and the primitive accumulation of labor

When meatpacking plants in the United States lost a third of their undocumented Latinx workers to Federal immigration raids in the late 2000s, the industry began recruiting vulnerable, but “legal,” refugee workers to replace them. In the spring of 2020, as COVID-19 threatened to halt meatpacking, two separate executive orders designated meatpacking production as essential to the United States food system and introduced new restrictions on refugee resettlement in the United States. Bridging Marxian literature on race, labor, and capitalism and critical refugee studies, this paper examines the paradox of refugees’ positioning as both “essential” sources of vulnerable labor and “prohibited” threats to the American nation-state. We argue that the placement of refugees in meatpacking jobs is actually the primitive accumulation of unfree labor. In the case of “essential” meatpacking work in the United States, racial capitalism articulates with conditions of statelessness and unequal citizenship rights to anchor “prohibited” refugees to meatpacking work.

Immigration Raids and Racist State Violence

This article develops an analysis of contemporary immigration raids in Britain, arguing that they operate ideologically as well as institutionally to sustain the material and political conditions of what is a vastly unequal form of social order (that is also a form of racial order). It suggests that immigration raids are located within and develop understandings of a racial state in contemporary Britain. Drawing on ethnographic work at a migrant charity organization, it explains the raid process and its impact on individuals and families. Raids are rationalized as facilitating removal and more broadly operate as part of attempts to generate fear and encourage people to leave “voluntarily.” However, this is not achieved in many cases, and this article suggests that the real purpose of raids is to dominate and oppress illegalized migrants and those who may be vulnerable to immigration control, as well as reproducing the justification for immigration enforcement. Raids can be understood as inflicting harms and as a form of state-sanctioned racist violence which is utilized to try severing solidarities between communities. Enforcement leads to resistance and the conclusion reflects on resistance to raids, demonstrated for example by the 2021 Kenmure Street protest in Glasgow, and the solidarities such resistance ferments and sustains.

De facto immigration enforcement, ICE raid awareness, and worker engagement

AbstractWe explore whether fear of apprehension affects immigrants' labor market engagement by examining how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removals due to immigration violations and increased awareness of immigration raids impact their labor market outcomes. We find that ICE deportations are associated with reductions in the labor force participation and employment of likely undocumented immigrants when compared to similarly skilled foreign‐born US citizens. Effects are particularly strong among women, especially those with children, as well as in industries likely targeted by ICE raids. Controlling for perceived threats and de jure immigration policies has little impact on these results.

The Roles of Settings in Supporting Immigrants' Resistance to Injustice and Oppression: A Policy Position Statement by the Society for Community Research and Action: A Policy Statement by the Society for Community Research and Action: Division 27 of the American Psychological Association.

In 2018, in response to increasingly oppressive and widespread federal immigration enforcement actions in the United States (U.S.) and around the globe – including family separation, immigration raids, detention, deportation of people who have lived in the country for much of their lives – the Society for Community Research & Action produced a statement on the effects of deportation and forced separation on immigrants, their families, and communities (SCRA, 2018). The statement focused exclusively on the impacts of deportation and forced family separation, documenting the damage done by oppressive U.S. policies and practices. We felt it was imperative to document this harm, and yet were uncomfortable producing a narrow paper that focused solely on harm. There are multiple ways immigrants and their allies resist deportation and other forms of oppression. This resistance is done individually, collectively, and in settings that vary in size and scope, including community‐based, faith‐based, direct care, and educational settings, as well as entire municipalities and transnational organizing settings. Settings facilitate resistance in many ways, focusing on those who are oppressed, their oppressors, and systems of oppression. In this statement, we describe the unique and overlapping ways in which settings facilitate resistance. We situate this review of the scientific and practice literature in the frameworks of change through social settings, empowering settings, healing justice, and decolonization. We also document recommendations for continued resistance.

Unsettled Belonging in Complex Geopolitics: Refugees, NGOs, and Rural Communities in Northern Colorado

In Colorado, meat processing and packing industries profit from the low-wage labor of foreign born workers and refugees in particular. Scholars and journalists have examined the hazardous and environmentally unjust workplace conditions in meatpacking, and detailed refugee struggles in North American resettlement geographies. Our research builds from this work to examine how multi-scalar geopolitical processes shape processes of refugee resettlement and refugee labor in Colorado’s meatpacking industries. Methods for this work include analysis of secondary data and twenty-two semi-structured interviews with various actors knowledgeable about refugee resettlement and/or agricultural production in Colorado. We argue various intersecting geopolitical processes—from immigration raids of meatpacking plants to presidential-level xenophobic discourses and ensuing immigration policies—interact to impact refugee resettlement and participation in the meat production sector. Moreover, while the U.S.’s neoliberal model of outsourcing resettlement to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has been widely critiqued, we argue NGO employees, many of whom identify as foreign-born and/or refugees, work to build connection and belonging among refugees in challenging resettlement environments. We suggest a feminist geopolitics approach, which examines how the “global” and the “intimate” are deeply intertwined, is a useful perspective for understanding complicated racialized spaces in the rural United States, including efforts to build connections and empower refugee identities.

Separated: Family and Community in the Aftermath of an Immigration Raid. William D. Lopez. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019. 232 pp.

Separated: Family and Community in the Aftermath of an Immigration Raid. William D. Lopez. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019. 232 pp.

De Facto Immigration Enforcement, Ice Raid Awareness, and Worker Engagement

We explore whether fear of apprehension affects immigrants' labor market engagement by examining how ICE removals due to immigration violations and increased awareness of immigration raids impact their labor market outcomes. We find that ICE deportations are associated with reductions in the labor force participation and employment of likely undocumented immigrants when compared to similarly skilled foreign-born U.S.citizens. Effects are particularly strong among women, especially those with children, as well as in industries likely targeted by ICE raids. Controlling for perceived threats and de jure immigration policies has little impact on these results.