EFFECTS OF DEPORTATION ON CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

Effects of Deportation on Children and families

Abraham Viveros

Arizona State University

Effects of Deportation on Children and Families

Abstract

This paper talks about deportation effects on children and families. It describes how the

separation of families can cause children to suffer from mental issues, such as depression and

anxiety. It includes research that has been gathered by different people to prove how deportation

causes emotional pain and mental agony.

Keywords:​ ​Deportation
Effects of Deportation on Children and Families

Section 1: Introduction
For my topic, I will be talking about deportation. I will be focusing on the effects it causes on
children and their families. I am interested in this topic because I myself have parents who immigrated
from another country in search of a better life. I wanted to research more into how separating families
affects children.

Section 2: Annotated Bibliography

Dreby. J (August 2012).​The Burden of Deportation on Children In Mexican Immigrant Families.

Retrieved from: ​https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2012.00989.x

In the article, ​The Burden of Deportation on Children In Mexican Immigrant Families, ​Joanna Dreby
talks about how a record amount of people who were not born in the US, were deported out of the
country. It talks about how children are the most affected by the harsh deportation laws. The article talks
about a deportation pyramid which displays the hardships faced by the children of those who are deported
and separated from their families. It also mentions how mexican immigrant families fear for their lives
thanks to the immigration laws.

Dreby has a PhD in Sociology from CUNY GRaduate Center, and a B.A. in Sociology and Latin
American Studies from Rutgers University. She has written two award winning books and this article,
which also won an award. She is a credible source because she has written over 25 peer reviewed journals
and has been to different countries doing research on different subjects.

This source will play an important role in the development of my writing project because it provides a
huge amount of information collected by the author. It contains interviews with many different parents
and children, which provides great insight on personal experiences with deportation. The interviews
provided in the article will also help give this paper some emotion.

Hagan, J., Castro, B., Rodriguez, N. (2010). ​The Effects Of U.S. Deportation Policies On Immigrant
Families And Communities: Cross Border Perspectives​. Retrieved
from:​https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/nclr88&div=54&g_sent=1&casa_token=&c
ollection=journals

In the article, ​The Effects Of U.S. Deportation Policies On Immigrant Families And Communities: Cross
Border Perspectives, t​ he authors discuss how laws in the US have made it easier to arrest and deport
people who were not born in the country. They discuss how these laws, which have received lots of
criticism, have changed from old policies that made it easier for immigrants to come and settle in the US.
This article demonstrates the effect of deportation on families of immigrants.
Effects of Deportation on Children and Families

Hagan teaches sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is the author of several
books. Brianna Castro has a Bachelor’s degree in Public Policy and Spanish from the University of North
Carolina. She is a credible source because she has worked on migration related research in four different
countries. Nestor Rodriguez teaches at The University of Texas located in Austin. The research he
conducts mainly focuses on international migration, racial and ethnic relations, and global development.
These are all credible people that have lots of experience with immigration problems, and they have all
done a vast amount of research.

This source will play an important role in the development of my writing project because the article
combines research collected from several different studies. This prevents any information from being
biased, and makes it more reliable. This article also contains interviews with immigrants that tell their
story. These interviews help us understand a little bit more thanks to their experiences.

“​Since the mid-1990s, the United States has enacted a series of laws that makes it easier to arrest, detain,
and deport noncitizens.” (p.1)
2. “Between1995 and 2008, deportations (with orders of removal) skyrocketed from 50,924 to 358,886,
representing over a six hundred percent increase in just thirteen years.” (p.3)

Rodriguez, N., Hagan. J. (2004). ​Fractured Families And Communities: Effects of Immigration Reform In
Texas, Mexico, And El Salvador. R ​ etrieved from:
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057%2Fpalgrave.lst.8600094.pdf

I​ n the article, ​Fractured Families And Communities: Effects of Immigration Reform In Texas, Mexico,
And El Salvador, ​the authors discuss how the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility
Act (IIRIRA) created a huge change in immigration policies. This act allowed for easy deportations, and
created many barriers for immigrants who tried to come to the US. This article uses interviews from
different organizations and with different households to present the effects of IIRIRA on immigrant
families and communities.

Hagan teaches sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is the author of several
books on immigration. Nestor Rodriguez teaches at The University of Texas located in Austin. The
research he conducts mainly focuses on international migration, racial and ethnic relations, and global
development. These two authors combined are a very credible source. They both have dealt with
immigration research in the past, and both have lots of experience.
This source will play an important role​ ​in the development of my writing project because this article
provides information collected from three different countries. The authors collected information from
different communities, and different households, and included their personal experiences. They also
interview different agencies to collect more reliable information.
Effects of Deportation on Children and Families

“The law also has mobilized governmental and non-governmental agency involvement both for and
against immigrants.” (p.328)
2. “ IIRIRA changed the ideological course of post World War II immigration policies by introducing
provisions that made it harder for immigrants, especially poor immigrants, to enter the country to join
their families and made it easier for the government to deport non-citizens” (p.329)

Liptak, A. (2019, March 19). ​Immigrants Facing Deportation Must Be Detained After Release From
Criminal Custody, Justices Rule. ​Retrieved from:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/19/us/politics/immigrants-deported-custody-release.html

In the article, ​Immigrants Facing Deportation Must Be Detained After Release From Criminal Custody,
Justices Rule, L ​ iptak talks about a federal immigraton law that was just passed. This law allows for the
detention of immigrants facing deportation without the possibility of bail if they had committed crimes,
including minor ones, no matter how long ago they had been released from criminal custody. It also talks
about how the Supreme Court has allowed the incarceration of thousands of people, and how this law may
be subject to constitutional change.

Adam Liptak graduated from Yale Law School, and practiced law for 14 years. He is now a journalist for
the New York Times, and has been since 2002. Liptak covers the US Supreme court, and writes on legal
developments. This shows that Liptak is a credible source to use for this writing project. His research and
writings have kept him working for one of the most prestigious websites.

​ his article will play an important role for my writing project because it is focusing on the Supreme
T
Court, and an immigration law that was recently passed. This article gives insight on what people are
saying about the new immigration law and how they are reacting to it. It provides quotes from Justices
and lawyers.

“​ For two terms in a row now,” she said, “the Supreme Court has endorsed the most extreme
interpretation of immigration detention statutes, allowing mass incarceration of people without any
hearing, simply because they are defending themselves against a deportation charge.”
2. ​“These aliens,” Justice Breyer wrote, “may then be detained for months, sometimes years, without the
possibility of release; they may have been convicted of only minor crimes — for example, minor drug
offenses, or crimes of ‘moral turpitude’ such as illegally downloading music or possessing stolen bus
transfers; and they sometimes may be innocent spouses or children of a suspect person.”
Effects of Deportation on Children and Families

Zayas, H., Cook, L. (2016, November). ​Disrupting Young Lives: How Detention and Deportation Affect
US-born children Of Immigrants. ​Retrieved from:
https://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/newsletter/2016/11/detention-deportation

The article, ​Disrupting Young Lives: How Detention and Deportation Affect US-born children Of
Immigrants, ​discusses how there are 9 million children whose parents are undocumented immigrants. It
mentions how half of these children are US citizens, because they were born on US soil. It mentions how
their parents not being legal immigrants plays a huge toll on children’s psychological status.

Cook is an assistant professor at St. Edward’s University. She has expertise in different areas, including
forced migration, and domestic and sexual violence. She is a credible source because she has worked
directly with migrant communities, and worked with a refugee service. This gave her the opportunity to
talk to and help many people who were in danger. This gives her a great amount of knowledge on
problems going on in different communities.

​ his article will play an important role for my writing project because it is another perspective on
T
immigration and the tolls it plays psychologically. The article provides facts from the American
Psychological Association to justify the claims being made. It also gives anecdotes from children who
have already lived without their parents because they were deported.

1. “Parents’ legal vulnerability, detention and deportation are strongly associated with depression,
anxiety, fears of separation, social isolation, self-stigma, aggression, withdrawal and negative academic
consequences among children (Brabeck & Xu, 2010; Chavez et al., 2012; Delva et al., 2013; Dreby, 2012;
Gonzales, Suárez-Orozco & Dedios-Sanguineti, 2013).”
2. “Deportation-related separation often occurs within the context of premigration and migration-related
stress and trauma.”

Rodriguez, J. (2019, April)

I talked to a friend I knew from back home who had one of his parents deported. I asked several questions
relating to his and his mother’s mental health. We discussed about how his father got deported and what it
was like for his father.

This interview will play an important role in my project because it is a first hand account of what the issue
is. I had the opportunity to talk to someone who had actually went through such a traumatic experience to
truly understand the problem more.
Effects of Deportation on Children and Families

“It is extremely hard to live without having our father home.”

“Luckily, he wasn’t sent as far away from the U.S. compared to other cases.”

Section 3: Investigative Essay

Deportation is when a foreigner gets kicked out of a country. Immigrants that have had trouble

with the laws have been deported since a long time ago, although deportation rates have increased

dramatically over the years. An article written by Jacquelin Hagan, it says, ​“Between1995 and 2008,

deportations (with orders of removal) skyrocketed from 50,924 to 358,886, representing over a six

hundred percent increase in just thirteen years” (p.3). This demonstrates that immigration laws have been

getting tougher, allowing for immigrants to be deported easier. Being deported not only affects those

individuals, but also their family members. According to a survey conducted by Hagan and other

researchers, 45 percent of immigrants who had been deported left behind children.

Children of deportees can suffer from major emotional and psychological effects. The American

Psychological Association says that experiencing their parents’ arrest, detention and deportation can

complicate citizen-children’s pre-existing stress and detrimentally impact their mental health. Also,

parents’ legal vulnerability, detention and deportation are strongly associated with depression, anxiety,

fears of separation, social isolation, self-stigma, aggression, withdrawal and negative academic

consequences among children (Brabeck & Xu, 2010; Chavez et al., 2012; Delva et al., 2013; Dreby, 2012;

Gonzales, Suárez-Orozco & Dedios-Sanguineti, 2013)​. ​Children seem to suffer the most from being

separated from their parents. Besides the separation and the psychological trauma, the children and

families left behind often are forced to live in poverty. These families have to find ways to get by without

calling too much attention to themselves because they live in fear of having another member of their

family be deported. This too, adds to their psychological hardships.

Effects of Deportation on Children and Families

Like it was mentioned, immigrants have been deported for hundreds of years. This means that

millions of children have suffered over the years. The mental health of children and families should be

taken into account when the government is in the process of deporting an immigrant. There are different

approaches to help decrease deportation rates of immigrants. In an article written by Harlan York, an

immigration attorney, he provides ways to help prevent these immigrants from being deported. For

example, he writes that bringing back the 212(c) pardon for green card holders can help, along with

cancellation of removal for non-permanent residents. These solutions will be of great help to millions of

immigrants who immigrated in search of a better life. It will provide them with the opportunity to find

jobs that were not available in their home countries, and will provide them with asylum from problems

going on back home. Preventing deportations also means that more families will be able to stay in tact,

thus leading to children not being impacted negatively emotionally or psychologically.

Section 4: Conclusion

This research will bring focus to the psychological impact on children of deportees. Deportation

rates have only increased as time continues to go by, meaning that more and more children are suffering

from emotional distress and having their mental health impacted negatively. Deportation rates need to be

issued to prevent any more separation of families and suffering.