Refugees, Deportation, and Unaccompanied Immigrant Children

Talking Points from the SRCD Briefs

• Compared to children born on the United States (U.S), refugee children experience heightened Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), behavioral and social problems, anxiety and depression, social isolation, and family conflict. 
• Unaccompanied immigrant children often fear consequences, face embarrassment, and struggle with language and cultural barriers during legal interviews. The practices of separation, detention, and removal to temporary encampments worsen the trauma these children may already be fleeing, further setting them on a path of continued marginalization. 
• Children of undocumented parents, especially Latino children, often experience chronic fear. Refugees and unaccompanied children face significant barriers to mental health services, including a shortage of providers, mental health stigma, cultural and language obstacles, and mistrust of service systems. As a result, the use of evidence-based mental health services is limited, and few prevention-oriented interventions are available. 
• Refugees and unaccompanied children need school-based, family-based, and individual mental health services that are culturally responsive and trauma-informed. 
• Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processing centers are meant to temporarily hold migrants for asylum processing, but this is often violated. CBP facilities have been described as overcrowded, with children crying, confused, and hungry, sleeping on concrete floors with aluminum foil blankets. If children were exposed to similar conditions in their own homes, it would likely be considered neglect or abuse, and parents could face criminal charges.