The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and the Urban Institute have released the findings of a study about the impact of immigration operatives on children titled, “Paying the Price. The Impact of Immigration Raids on America’s Children.” The study details some psychological implications, educational, economic and social that has had the reinforcement of immigration operations concerning children.
The investigation took place in three communities that in the last year experimented massive raids by part of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)-in Greeley, Colorado; Grand Island, Nebraska; and New Bedford, Massachusetts–, in which a total of 912 people were arrested and 506 children as a result were affected.
Some of the most relevant findings were the following:
• In the United States, approximately five million children exist that have at least one undocumented parent.
• For every two persons that are detained in a migrant operative, a child is left without a family.
• Two thirds of these children are United States citizens and a similar percentage coincides to minors less than ten years old.
• The immigration operatives create economical anguish and emotional trauma in minors affected by fear of being separated abruptly from their parents. In the same manner, parents also experiment troubled depression for post traumatic stress and anxiety because of separation.
• Because of fear, the affected families are reluctant to receive help.
• The immigration operatives exert pressure over the principal support groups of the affected families: the communities, the school system, social services providers, and religious institutions, among others.
• Nor the communities nor the local governments procure adequate resources to attain the necessities of the children over the negative impact of the raids.
• After the operatives, the majority of children are left without one of their two parents and in some cases left without both. An example of this was Grand Island, where both parents of 17 percent of the children were arrested.
• The immigrants detained face many difficulties to communicate with their families to make arrangements over the care and attention of their children.
On grounds of these discoveries, the study issues recommendations to the federal government and authorities on the local level, as well as to non profit community organizations and immigrant leaders. In a press release, the NCLR solicited the United States Congress to have a hearing, as soon as possible to discuss the situation of the children after the raids.
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