The Burden of Deportation on Children in Mexican Immigrant Families

Abstract

In 2011, a record number of foreign‐born individuals were detained and removed from the United States. This article looks at the impact enforcement policies have had on Mexican families more broadly and children specifically. Drawing on interviews with 91 parents and 110 children in 80 households, the author suggests that, similar to the injury pyramid used by public health professionals, a deportation pyramid best depicts the burden of deportation on children. At the top of the pyramid are instances that have had the most severe consequences on children's daily lives: families in which a deportation has led to permanent family dissolution. But enforcement policies have had the greatest impact on children at the bottom of the pyramid. Regardless of legal status or their family members' involvement with immigration authorities, children in Mexican immigrant households describe fear about their family stability and confusion over the impact legality has on their lives.

Latino immigrant men and the deportation crisis: A gendered racial removal program

“…Adults and children share in psychological stress. Joanna Dreby's (2012) research based on interviews with 91 parents and 110 children in 80 households reveals that regardless of legal status, children in Mexican immigrant families now express fear and anxiety about potential family separations, leading her to suggest that children disproportionally shoulder the burden of deportation. The consequences of today's deportation crisis continue to unfold, and raise a number of urgent research questions: What are the consequences for Latina women and other family members affected by deportations?…”

“…Left behind in the United States, these families include US citizens and legal residents with many years in the United States who experience adverse economic, social and psychological effects (Hagan et al, 2011;Dreby, 2012). Detention and deportation often remove critical sources of already meager male breadwinner income from Latino working families.…”

Policy Statement on the Incarceration of Undocumented Migrant Families

“…The authors argue that the loss of a deported person's income can lead to housing insecurity, food insecurity, psychological distress, and slipping from low income into poverty. Dreby (2012)added that a parent's deportation can lead to a permanent change in family structure and in extreme cases, family dissolution. Brabeck et al (2014) call for more research that offers children an opportunity to tell their stories in their own voices.…”

“…Furthermore, local community organizations were also impacted in that they lost some program participants, had limited resources to address deportation issues, experienced greater financial burdens, and had to add to the workload of staff (Sladkova et al, 2012). Thus, the mere threat or possibility of detention or deportation has been found to have deleterious effects on the wellbeing of parents, children and the communities in which they live (Dreby, 2012;Maya-Salas et al, 2013). It has also been documented that fears of deportation can limit immigrants' participation in various psychosocial programs (Guerra & Knox, 2008;Knox, Guerra, William & Toro, 2011) and prompt immigrant day laborers to tolerate discrimination and isolation (Negi, 2013).…”

The Developmental Impact of Reverse-Migration Separation on Low-Income Chinese-American Children—Provider Perspectives

“…Across ethnic groups, adult immigrants in search for economic opportunities often leave their family behind in their home country [5] [6] [7]. The experience of immigrants separating with their families has been well documented in the literature categorized by groups, such as Salvadorans [5], Mexicans [7], Caribbean [8], and Chinese [9].…”