“Kids know that people are taken away and they worry. That diffuse fear just spreads,” said Joanna Dreby, a sociology professor at the University at Albany. Dreby said he hopes this anxiety affects more children as they see and hear about violent events involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement, such as accounts of U.S. citizens being detained or shot. “As more and more children are exposed to those serious events, more and more children will carry those fears,” Dreby said.
Research shows that children can display worrying behaviors when their communities are targeted by immigration authorities, including increased aggression, separation anxiety, and withdrawal.
Parents and early childhood educators have long reported increased aggression, separation anxiety, and withdrawal among children when Administrations intensify enforcement of immigration measures.with worse effects for those who fear law enforcement.
If that anxiety is not addressed, there can be long-term consequences. Exposure to immigration law enforcement in childhood has been It has been found to cause long-term anxiety.PTSD and depression in adolescence and young adulthood. Young children are especially vulnerable to trauma because their brains develop rapidly during the first five years of life, and that development can be greatly influenced by stress hormones.
Dreby, who has spent years interviewing and studying children who have experienced immigration enforcement to some degree, said the longer enforcement goes on, the more children may be affected. It is even more damaging if they witness arrests. “Unfortunately, some of the things we found most harmful to children are exactly the tactics federal immigration agents currently use,” he said.
“There is absolutely no reason why immigration regulation has to be developed in this very public way, in front of children,” Dreby added. “That must end immediately.”
Although parents can often serve as trauma buffers, they may have a difficult time doing so when they are also overly stressed and anxious. TO 2021 A study of preschool students in New York City, for example, found that when parents felt higher levels of immigration threat, children showed lower levels of self-regulation skills, especially around their ability to pay attention. Children in those families also experienced greater separation anxiety and overly anxious behaviors.
“Parental stress is certainly reaching children,” said Suma Setty, senior policy analyst for immigration and immigrant families at the Center for Law and Social Policy. In her previous research, Setty heard stories from children as young as 3 who said they were afraid of losing their parents to deportation. “It’s very evident in their behavior that stress is affecting them and that has long-term implications,” he added.
Interviewing parents, child care providers and professionals who interact with children over the past six months, Setty heard widespread reports of children having trouble sleeping, showing fear of police, regressing in skills like potty training and being more emotionally reactive. One respondent shared a story about a girl who asked her mother to teach her how to cook, so that the girl could feed herself if her mother was deported. One child care provider told Setty that children in her program used to be curious about visitors, but now they hide behind their teacher when someone new enters the building.
In Minnesota, where ICE has been involved in violent confrontations over the past month, Sonia Mayren, a Minneapolis-based clinical student who specializes in childhood trauma and works primarily with the Latino population, has seen a sharp increase in anxiety among her patients. Many of the children she cares for have suffered behavioral regression. In recent months, all of her clients have moved their sessions online. Several have abandoned therapy altogether.
Like Dreby, Mayren also hears about children who fear immigration agents even if their family is not at risk of execution. “It’s not just ‘I’m afraid of ICE detaining my friends or family,’ it’s ‘I’m afraid of ICE in general, because they might come and hurt us,’” he said.
Mayren tells parents to be patient with children, try to protect them from the news and maintain routines, especially if children have been withdrawn from school. It also encourages parents to seek mental health assistance to try to keep their children stable, with the caveat that they may not see much improvement in their children’s mental health while immigration enforcement remains so aggressive and visible.
“Now we just keep the children’s heads above water because they are in a state of emergency,” he said. “It’s just survival.”
