Immigrant Deportation Trauma

Feb 25

Jessica Chang, MHC-LP

As of 2021, more than 16.7 million people in the United States, nearly 10% of US families with children, share a home with at least one family member who is undocumented. At least 6 million of those are children under the age of 18. With the recent presidential election, immigrant populations have been increasingly threatened with immigration enforcement actions as well as hostile and negative discourse surrounding immigrants and immigration policy. Communities are subject to defamatory allegations, hate speech, violence, and racist remarks which extends to the fear, mistrust, and psychological distress of other marginalized groups as well. Broadly, deportation, and the relentless threat of deportation, has detrimental impacts on the physical, emotional, psychological, developmental, and economical wellbeing of individuals, families, children, communities, and the country at large.

Psychosocial Consequences

Impact on deportees

Deportation is a traumatic form of forced displacement that can occur suddenly, unexpectedly, and with little preparation or planning. These people often have spent a significant period of their lives in the country that dispels them, and they may be returning to face persecution and other dangerous, turbulent environments. Deportations have resulted in kidnapping, torture, rape, and murder. Those who are deported are at heightened risk of mental health crises, substance use and addiction, homelessness, and death.

Majority of the people who are deported are men. Deported parents face difficulties obtaining work that would enable them to support their families who are still in the US. This adds additional layers of shame and demoralizing emotions. Further, families often face difficulties and obstacles remaining in contact, and relationships with family members and friends are often severed. Additionally, one’s sense of self and purpose is placed at risk as one’s immigrant identity is taken away along with all they have accomplished. When children accompany their deported parents back to their country of origin, they experience profound adjustment difficulties. Studies have reported a sense of loss regarding their future and the resources available to them.

Impact on family members including children

Members of immigrant families facing threats of deportation commonly report feelings of sadness, fear, fatigue, hopelessness, anxiety, mistrust, and worry, and experience hypervigilance, nightmares, and weight fluctuations which are related to cardiovascular risk factors. Children face increased health risks even before they are born due to the stressful environment mothers are enduring.

When a family member is deported, remaining family members, including children, are often forced to take on new roles in order to make ends meet while facing economic hardship, housing instability, and food insecurity. When fathers are deported, mothers become single parents and are often left with little to no income and possibly facing large legal bills. Remaining caregiver(s) often work longer hours and have less time to spend with their children. Older children may become the primary caregivers of younger siblings, forced to take on responsibilities that are inappropriate for their age. They may also take on work to help support the family, affecting their ability to attend and perform well in school. These consequences of forced family separation have long-term impacts and often continue if their family is reunited. Once a child of undocumented immigrants becomes an adult, the stress of their family member’s deportation may remain with the added responsibility of taking care of older and younger generations.

The separation of a child from a parent due to deportation is associated with a myriad of consequences ranging from emotional and behavioral challenges in children to housing and food insecurity. With the threat of deportation of a family member, children exhibit eating and sleeping changes and experience emotional distress such as increased crying, anxiety, sadness, anger, and withdrawal. This also negatively impacts school performance and retention rates. Studies have shown that children present at the time in which a parent was detained had even greater emotional, cognitive, and behavioral effects. These outcomes remain present 6 months later. Immigrant children living in communities where raids have taken place have reported feeling abandoned, isolated, fearful, traumatized, and depressed. Further, regardless of immigration status, children in these communities experience fear and shame regarding deportation. The confusing language and lack of knowledge surrounding immigration enforcement actions leads to feeling ashamed to know or be in relation to an immigrant. This is devastating for children’s identity development and sense of self and has negative consequences to their overall wellbeing.

Following deportation of a family member, a child’s risk of experiencing mental health problems like depression, anxiety, and severe psychological distress increases, and consequences can include detrimental impacts to brain development. Risk for developing physical conditions such as cancer, stroke, diabetes, and heart disease also increases. Housing stability is also threatened following deportation. The ability to afford housing may be in question, resulting in the loss of a family’s home and the possibility of having to relocate frequently.

Community consequences

Deportation has ripple effects that impact communities and public health. When people are subject to fear of immigration enforcement actions, mental health consequences occur along with withdrawal from civic engagement and public health programs. Immigrant communities become more fearful and mistrustful of public institutions and are less likely to participate in churches, schools, health clinics, cultural activities, social services, and public safety systems. They are also less likely to participate in community life, including visiting parks, libraries, restaurants, and other community events. Lack of social participation denies people the benefits associated with social integration such as sense of well-being and purpose, lower risk of overall cancer and mortality, lower rates of cardiovascular disease, less functional decline and distress, and lower psychological distress and suicide risk.

Prolonged emotional distress such as anxiety and fear is linked to cardiovascular risk factors. Immigrant families, including children, parents, and grandparents often lack health insurance. This threatens families’ financial stability as well as children’s growth and development. Immigrants facing threats of deportation are also less likely to report abuse, seek medical or mental health treatment, and access other programs needed to thrive. Lack of trust in public safety features and officials leads to decreased access to protective services. Immigration enforcement actions are a deterrent to health and safety of individuals and the public.

Conclusion

It is clear that deportation has long-lasting consequences, not just for individuals and families but also for communities. Deportation is not an event that happens suddenly and then stops once the action is complete. It is a prolonged state of mind that has enduring physiological, psychological, emotional, social, and economical consequences. It is extremely important for mental health counselors and policymakers to be aware of the extent of the impact of immigrant deportation trauma.

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