As the immigration raids in Los Angeles and across the country continue, the most impacted will be children.
Children are witnessing their communities being publicly disrupted and destroyed at a rapid rate. Children are losing their parents to deportation, or worse, children are being deported themselves.
Latino youth are one of the largest ethnic-racial groups with the highest anxiety and depression rates in the United States. In recent years, there have been higher rates of high school Latino youth who have reported making a suicide plan, having suicidal thoughts and having attempted suicide, in comparison to other youth.
Take the case of Jocelynn Rojo Carranzater. An 11-year-old Texas girl who committed suicide due to the bullying she was experiencing, which included anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Immigrant youth may have a hard time concentrating at school. It’s hard to solve math problems when you fear that your parents might get deported. This constant fear of family deportation will ultimately impact their academic progress, negatively affect their mental health and their sense of safety and belonging.
They will fear attending local grocery stores, as evidenced by the drastic decrease in customers shopping at Latino shopping centers, such as, Plaza Fiesta in metro Atlanta.
Obama and Biden deported millions, but Trump plans to go further
Credit: The OpEd Project
Credit: The OpEd Project
Youth watching their local Spanish-language Atlanta area journalist, Mario Guevara, be publicly detained in their community is a signal from our country that they are not safe.
This amplified threat of immigration enforcement activities in these everyday spaces for Latino children is psychological violence. Increased anti-immigrant policies that criminalize and terrorize Latino immigrant communities, such as 287(g) in Gwinnett County, lead to increased self-isolation, sadness, grief, and low self-worth for Latino youth.
It is not normal to feel scared about your parents going out to get groceries for your family, or to fear that your parents’ goodbye in the morning before school will be their last.
Right now, children of immigrants are having to go grocery shopping and run various adult activities because their parents fear ICE ripping them away from a country they have cultivated as their home.
This “adultification” of children of immigrants tears them away from enjoying youthfulness and thriving as children, further impacting their developmental and mental health.
Latino youth and communities have had a long history of resilience and strength throughout every administration, including the Obama administration, which deported an estimated 2.9 million immigrants during his term, and the Biden administration, which deported 1.49 million immigrants.
Trump has vowed to deport a million immigrants in his first year in office, in comparison to his first term, in which he deported an estimated more than 1.5 million immigrants across the four years.
Six ways the community can protect children’s well-being
Children should not have to be resilient. The structural and direct community violence that Latino children are facing requires a multifaceted approach to protect and alleviate some of the responsibilities children are having to take on.
Below are research-informed ways that we as a community can support Latino children:
- We should continue to raise awareness of the dangers of ICE raids and the impact of anti-immigrant policies on communities, shifting the negative societal views of immigrants.
- Counties in Georgia should reject 287(g) agreements and pledge to protect their immigrant residents and advocate against the construction and expansion of detention centers, such as Folkston ICE Processing Center.
- In communities, post 'Know Your Rights' documents in public areas; offer free food delivery services to Latino immigrant communities; nurses and community health workers can provide in-home services by partnering with local trusted immigrant community organizations.
- In schools, educators can provide “Know Your Rights” documents in multiple languages in their classrooms, and schools should have safety protocols in place to prevent ICE officers from raiding their premises.
- Therapists, school psychologists and mental health professionals should provide low-cost to free services widely to children of immigrants by reaching out to schools and Latino immigrant community organizations.
- School administrators should have a comprehensive and holistic plan in place if Latino students are experiencing a decrease in school attendance and academic performance.
Latino children should not continue to carry the weight of constant fear that their community and family will be ripped away.
They should be able to go outside and play in the neighborhood, waiting for the local street vendors so they can buy a raspa or shaved ice to cool off this summer.
They should not have to walk in fear through the empty streets of their once-vibrant community.
Yesnely Anacari Flores is an immigrant rights advocate, doctoral student at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, and Public Voices fellow of The OpEd Project with the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and Every Page Foundation.
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