Citation

Fradkin C. Front. Pediatr. 2018; 6: e9.

Affiliation

Psychological Sciences, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA, United States.

Comment On:

Front Pediatr 2017;5:177.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Frontiers Media)

DOI

10.3389/fped.2018.00009

PMID

29423393

PMCID

PMC5788897

Abstract

The issue at hand is deportation. The setting is the United States. The subjects are the children of undocumented immigrants, who for the most part come from Mexico or Central America. In the opinion piece by Leiner and colleagues (1), the authors list the consequences of “fear of deportation,” which affect many of these children and their families. These include parents not driving their children to school for fear of deportation; families not reporting domestic abuse for fear of deportation; families not seeking urgent or preventative health care for fear of deportation; reduced opportunities for food and family housing for fear of deportation; and missed opportunities for planning for the future (1). The authors also list the consequences of stress-related illness, including higher levels of: anxiety- and trauma-related illnesses, depressive-related illnesses, family instability, all directly tied to “fear of deportation” (1).

In the first year of one of the most nationalist administrations in American history, this piece reminds us that the well-being of a nation’s children should subsume its political agenda. While the authors build a compelling case for why “fear of deportation” merits our attention, further details could drive their message home. These details are from findings of recent research studies, which support the authors’ well-intentioned piece.

The first finding pertains to the protection that the “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” (DACA) affords children of DACA-enrolled mothers—mothers whose enrollment exempts them from deportation. In a study of adjustment and anxiety disorder among children (N = 8,610) born in Oregon, and thereby US citizens, Hainmueller and colleagues (2) saw that children of DACA-eligible mothers had more than 50% fewer diagnoses of adjustment and anxiety disorder (4.3%) than children of non-DACA-eligible mothers (7.9%). This is evidence of the intergenerational protection that DACA provides to children of non-documented mothers...

Language: en

Keywords

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals; Immigration and Customs Enforcement; children; deportation; undocumented