Contemporary immigration policy: the rise of child anxiety and its harmful effect on children’s development

Guest blogger: Gemma Malki, law student, University of San Francisco

Before Donald Trump’s presidency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had reported high rights of deportations involving parents of U.S. citizen children. The number had increased from 72,410 in 2013 to 28,860 in 2016.[1] However, in the years prior to the increase, DHS and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) put in a series of policies to decrease the collateral effect of deportations on the children whose parents were arrested to be deported.[2] The policies emphasized the use of discretion when arresting or detaining a parent or primary caregiver.[3] The policies also included options to deter harmful effects on children allowing a parent facing removal to make arrangements for their child or to allowing detained parents to participate in welfare proceedings.[4]

            However, immigrant families were met with stricter tactics following the Trump Administration’s immigration policies. The Trump Administration sought to “protect” national interests, by instilling harsher deportation procedures, including increased number of enforcement agents, encouraging collaboration between ICE and local police and, most importantly, prioritization deportation, regardless of its harmful effect on children.[5] The rhetoric behind protecting national interest contributes to the notion that migrants or refugees are equated with the threat or destruction of the U.S.’s national interests. The growing concern among scholars is that the rhetoric from the current administration employs “fear, loathing, and spectacle,” in an attempt to demonstrate concern for the general welfare as expressed in public policy.[6]

            Increased deportation and anti-immigrant rhetoric have seen an increase in children’s’ anxieties and expressions of fear. A 2018 study showed a strong correlation between President Trump’s immigration policies and its developmental harm on children.[7] The study engaged with educational providers all over the U.S. regarding the impact of the policies on the children in their classrooms. Many children do not actually know the contents of immigration policy, but they reiterate what they hear around them.

Firstly, the main fear among children is that their parents will be taken away from them. Teachers around the country reported increases in separation anxiety, including tearful departures between children and their parents when they were dropped off from school, the children in fear that their parents will not be home when they return. Some students were heard saying that they were “afraid their mom would be sent to Mexico,” even though their mother was not even from Mexico.[8]

Secondly, the fear and anxiety has manifested in behavioral issues in the classroom. Some teachers recounted tales of decreased verbal engagement, some students’ refusal to speak at all, and increased aggression and hyperactivity among students due to the frustration and fear.[9] Teachers noted that the fear started to embrace students whose parents were U.S. citizens. Because the children cannot grasp the context of immigration, they could differentiate whether their parents deported. The fear surrounding deportation or immigration enforcement significantly destabilizes the learning of all students in a classroom, regardless of a child’s status. Without understanding the context of how immigration and deportation works, nonimmigrant children noticed the anxieties of their peers and started to fear their parents would be taken from them.[10]

            There is also extreme trauma experienced by children who witness their parent’s arrest (during a raid, for example) or whose parent is not home when they return from school. The study details an account of a four-year old girl whose father was arrested by ICE outside her school in Los Angeles. Stories such as this have led to children being withheld from school because their parents are too afraid to take their children to schools.[11] The withdrawal from school has led to increased developmental issues due to isolation and behavioral reactions to the trauma.

            Immigration reform advocates have called on Congress and the Administration to once again implement discretionary policies within DHS and ICE when making arrests. Specifically, surprise raids or arrests outside of schools should be mitigated by the collateral impact it has on the children of the parents.[12] Policy advocates have called for significant decrease in resources between ICE and local law enforcement, to dispel fears of community police officers.[13] Though ICE and DHS have imposed a sensitivity locations policy, the policy should be strongly enforced and expanded.[14] Advocates have called on DHS to ensure that detained or deported parents are able to contact their children and ensure their whereabouts. The priority, either within the U.S. schools and homes or within detention facilities, immigrations agencies should work to mitigate permanent harm done to children at the expense of strict enforcement policies.

[1] Wendy Cervantes, Rebecca Ullrich, & Hannah Matthew, Our Children’s Fear: Immigration Policy’s Effects on Young Children, CLASP, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED582818.pdf

[2] Id.

[3] Id.

[4] Id.

[5] American Immigration Council, Summary of Executive Order “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States,” https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/files/research/summary_of_executive_order_enhancing_public_safety_in_the_interior_of_the_united_states.pdf.

[6] Scott B. Astrada, Truth In Crisis: Critically Examining Immigration Rhetoric and Policy Under The Trump Administration, 22 Harv. Latinx L. Rev. 7 (Spring 2019). 

[7] Wendy Cervantes, Rebecca Ullrich, & Hannah Matthew, Our Children’s Fear: Immigration Policy’s Effects on Young Children, CLASP, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED582818.pdf

[8] Id.

[9] Id.

[10] Id.

[11] Id.

[12] Id.

[13] Id.

[14] Nickolas Bagley, Our Children’s Fear: Immigration Policy’s Effects on Young Children, CLASP, https://www.clasp.org/press-room/news-clips/our-children%E2%80%99s-fear-immigration-policy%E2%80%99s-effects-young-children.

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