The Emotional Cost of Parental Deportation

As of 2017, an estimated 4.5 million U.S. citizen children had at least one undocumented parent. For these children, the possibility that their parents could face immigration enforcement, including deportation, had significant effects on their well-being, research by Lauren Gulbas and Luis Zayas found.

Gulbas and Zayas interviewed 83 children, divided into three categories. All of the children themselves were U.S. citizens, with thirty-four living in the U.S. with at least one undocumented parent, thirty-one who left the U.S. for Mexico when their parent was deported, and eighteen remaining in the U.S. despite one or both parents having been deported.

Children whose undocumented parents had not been deported lived with that threat and participated in what Gulbas and Zayas call the “cultural script of silence,” not just remaining silent about their parents’ immigration status, but avoiding attention to themselves that might put their parents at risk. Many of these children lived with fear of one or both parents being deported.

Children often didn’t learn that their parents were undocumented until later childhood, resulting in a loss of trust for some when they found out. An eleven-year-old told the researchers, “They’re lying and all that. Like they knew they did not have papers, but they didn’t tell me.”

Gulbas and Zayas note that this cultural script of silence can “thwart the implementation of emergency plans for children and their families.” In their study, none of the families had a plan for what their children would do if the parents were detained.

In some cases, children whose parents were deported remained in the U.S. with a parent who had not been deported or with extended family. Separation from their parent was one source of stress for the children. One boy with a citizen mother experienced such intense distress after his father was deported that the family reunited in Mexico to improve his well-being. The loss of resources when a working parent was deported also caused disruptions and deprivation for some of the children. One girl, living in challenging circumstances with extended family, reported receiving food and diapers from her school after telling a counselor about her family’s situation.

Children who moved to Mexico to be with their parents faced difficulties as well, though. Some worried about a lack of opportunity. According to one 12-year-old, “If I stay here [in Mexico] I won’t have the chance to have any kind of future.” Others faced increased responsibility for household labor and caring for siblings as their parents worked long hours.

Of the eighty-three children in the study, only thirteen—seven whose parents had never been deported and six who had moved to Mexico with their parents—”described feeling safe, emotionally secure, and socially connected.” Not one of the children who had been separated from their parents through immigration enforcement felt safe and emotionally secure.

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