The Act of Immigration: Children, Trauma, and Limited Studies
Guest blogger: Kendall Baron, law student, University of San Francisco:
Throughout the last few years, we have been inundated with horrible conditions for individuals attempting to immigrate to the United States. Problems are rampant at the border and in detention centers, and many asylum seekers are being sent back to their countries of origin. Activists and attorneys alike have organized, attempted policy changes, and fought for the people who have immigrated here. A particularly cruel aspect of the Trump administration’s is the detainment and separation of children, which among recent studies is causing high levels of trauma and PTSD. Additionally, what makes this difficult is that for many individuals, particularly minors, the act of immigrating is traumatic in and of itself. This piece deals with the co-concurrent struggles that are facing individuals who have immigrated to the United States.
For example, Angelina Estrada and her son crossed the Rio Grande river when making the trek to the United States, and now everytime her son sees a body of water he asks her “Mommy, do you remember when we fell in the river?” and her response is “Always.”[1] Angelina Estrada is a journalist who was threatened by the Venezuelan government.[2] Estrada knew that as a mother with a child she would be allowed to enter the United States.[3] Upon arriving in the United States she was one of the 815 families being held in detention in McAllen, Texas.[4] Estrada did note that they were getting warm food and diapers but that they were all sleeping together on the floor on mats in a 77,000 square foot facility.[5] Although Estrada and her son were not separated it is clear the process to make it to the United States is traumatizing. But what does this mean for children, particularly if they were separated from their parents?
According to a report from the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, which is the agency responsible for caring for separated children, the children exhibited signs of fear and anxiety.[6] Further, the children were apprehensive about sharing their feelings since to them the mental health experts were working with “the enemy.”[7] The program directors and mental health clinicians stated that the kids believed that their parents had left them and were angry and confused.[8] Others noted feelings of fear, guilt, and were concerned for their parents’ wellbeing.[9] This report is the first comprehensive report of the emotional damage caused by Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy that officially began in 2018 and has created the separation of at least 2,800 families.[10]
It is important to note that not all children have been separated, but yet still experience emotional and mental health struggles. One study has noted that failing to accurately capture traumatic events that occur during immigration may stunt investigations of trauma and other related psychological disparities with Latinx youth.[11] Interviews were conducted with 131 immigrant Latinx youth.[12] The individuals first completed a comprehensive trauma assessment interview that added extra questions asking whether each traumatic event occurred during the process of immigration and then another immigration-focused module was added to the end of the overall assessment.[13] From this it became clear that a large portion of the individuals, 29.8% to be exact, reported experiencing a traumatic event while immigrating.[14] Furthermore, the majority of these in-transit trauma experiences (82.1%) were not captured by the standard trauma assessment.[15] From these, the majority – 87.5% of those with unidentified in-transit trauma – stated that the process of immigration itself was traumatic but had not indicated experiencing trauma during the standard trauma assessment.[16]
These experiences, and in greater part, these studies are important for the attorneys that represent these children. It is also important for the mental health professionals that do work in this field to alter the way they get information and context from their patients. It impacts the way policy makers and activists advocate for change. It shows that particular policies in the United States may become more depraved, but that systemically the way immigration is treated is inhumane and wrong.
[1] Norah O’Donnell, One year after leaving detention facility, immigrant mother says she’s grateful to be in America, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/detention-center-mcallen-texas-immigrant-mother-says-shes-grateful-america/
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Alan Gomez, Government watchdog: Separated migrant children suffered PTSD, other mental trauma
[7] Id.
[8] Id.
[9] Id.
[10] Id.
[11] Michael de Arellano, Arthur Andrews, et. al, Immigration trauma among Hispanic youth: Missed by trauma assessments and predictive of depression and PTSD symptoms, https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/lat0000090
[12] Id.
[13] Id.
[14] Id.
[15] Id.
[16] Id.
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