Exiling Children, Creating Orphans: How Deportation Hurts Us All Luis H. Zayas, Ph.D. Children’s Policy Conference Texans Care for Children February 26,

Deportation leads to Louis Brandeis, U.S. Supreme Court “the loss of both property and life; or of all that makes life worth living.”

The Immigration-Deportation Environment 3  Conflicting local & state & federal policies  Aggressive enforcement practices  Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals  Prosecutorial discretion  11.7 million unauthorized immigrants  5.5 million children in mixed-status families  4.5 million are U.S. citizen-children Pew Hispanic Center, 2011, 2012

20051,291,065246, ,206,412280, ,772319, ,043,774359, ,828395, ,307387, ,601388, ,474419, (awaiting figures)368,644 4 ICE: “Record Levels of Enforcement” YearApprehensions Removals Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2013

Demographers’ Ratio 2:1 Capps et al.,

Applying the Ratios ,431123,215 61, ,974140,487 70, ,382159,691 79, ,795179,897 89, ,165197,582 98, ,242193,621 96, ,409194,204 97, ,384209,692104, ,644184,322 92,161 TOTALS 3,165,426 1,582,711791,360 YearRemovals 2:1 4:1

Harm to Families  Parents making anguishing decisions  Children separated from parents  Siblings separated from each other  Older siblings taking care of younger siblings  Children placed in custody of child welfare  Parental rights terminated, sometimes  Creating two classes of citizen-children  Exiles  Orphans 7

Harm to Children 8 Psychological & Social Effects  Anxiety & hyper-vigilance  Depression  Trauma  Impaired attachment & bonding  Ambiguous loss and grief  Behavioral disorders  Uneven conditions of siblings (USC v. UNDOC)  DACA-eligible v. DACA-ineligible siblings Psychological & Social Effects  Anxiety & hyper-vigilance  Depression  Trauma  Impaired attachment & bonding  Ambiguous loss and grief  Behavioral disorders  Uneven conditions of siblings (USC v. UNDOC)  DACA-eligible v. DACA-ineligible siblings

UT Austin Study Exploring the Effects of Parental Deportation  Three groups of citizen-children  Boys and girls ages  In U.S. or Mexico: post-deportation v. no deportation  Group A: Parents deported, child in Mexico  Group B/C: Parents deported, child stays in US  Group D: No deportation experience, family in US  Mental health measures  Depression; anxiety; overall behavior; self-concept; trauma  In-depth interviews 9 Study funded by the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development

UT Austin Study Preliminary Results UT Austin Study 10 Study funded by the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development VariableOverallparent deported No parent deported Significance Somatic problems Statistical Behavioral adjustment Statistical Intellectual and school status Statistical Freedom from anxiety Statistical Happiness and satisfaction Statistical Depression Statistical Overall anxiety Clinical Separation anxiety Clinical NOTE: Study of 61 citizen-children (32 girls, 29 boys) with an average age of 11 years 9 months. The ‘parent deported’ group includes children in Mexico and U.S.

Collateral Damage Visiting condemnation on the head of an infant is illogical and unjust.... Obviously, no child is responsible for his birth, and penalizing the child is an ineffectual—as well as unjust—way of deterring the parent. William J. Brennan, Jr., U.S. Supreme Court Plyer v. Doe (1982) 11

Harm to Our Nation  Developmental health of our nation  Requires a healthy, well-educated, law-abiding labor force and citizenry  Developmental outcomes that are truncated  Behavioral & social-emotional competence  Literacy & education  Creativity  What will be the skills abilities of these returning citizens? 12

Policy Implications, I 13  Recognize that present system is no longer a viable  Change laws  Incorporate explicit language for children’s well-being during parents’ detention/removal  Redefine “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” to include mental health and education  Humane prosecutorial and judicial discretion  Keep immigrant parents out of detention  Ensure child’s best interest before detaining/removing parent  Favor supervised release of parent over detention  Ensure children’s access to parents during detention  Ensure family unity & equity, and family reunification

Policy Implications, II 14  If must deport, provide assistance to child in US or outside  Practices  Safe havens or school programs to assist children directly after arrests  USDHS and USDHHS develop child protection and trauma- minimizing methods  Improve communication between immigration and child welfare systems  Involve service providers for citizen-children facing exile  State level:  Grant extensions of child dependency cases to avoid terminating the parental rights  Educate child welfare and juvenile courts on detention and deportation