Health professionals statement on U.S. Supreme Court’s pending immigration decision
A sense of safety is critical to a child’s health and well-being. Constant fear and anxiety harm a child’s physical growth and development, emotional stability, self-confidence, social skills and ability to learn. Yet for the over five million children in America who have an undocumented parent, fear is a constant companion.1 The effects of our immigration policy matter not just to child health today, but risk harming health far into the future.
Many of us work on the front lines in hospitals, clinics, and community service organizations, and every day we witness the human suffering and physical, mental, and social health impacts caused by our nation’s broken immigration system. Others of us observe firsthand in our research the adverse health consequences of family instability, economic strain, and toxic stress. Our medical skills and research tools cannot help our patients meet these challenges.
This spring, the Supreme Court will hear United States v. Texas, a case that determines whether President Obama’s 2014 executive actions to defer the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants are within his legal authority. The Court is hearing a multi-state challenge to the legality of an expanded version of the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) program. These programs would defer the deportations of people who arrived in the U.S. as children and the undocumented parents of citizens and lawful permanent residents who have resided in the U.S. for some time.
Should these programs be allowed to take effect, up to 5.2 million undocumented immigrants could be allowed to remain in the country and be protected from deportation.2 And it is not only these immigrants who are directly affected. Millions more family members and children would benefit from maintaining their family’s unity, including the 4.1 million U.S. citizen children who have an undocumented parent.3
These families have waited for years for Congress to muster the will to pass comprehensive immigration reform. What began as a promise to fix our country’s broken immigration system has, in this election cycle, devolved into a xenophobic and hateful debate that utterly fails to address the reality that there are up to 11.4 million undocumented immigrants currently living among us as our friends, neighbors, and coworkers.
The status quo is causing irreparable harm to the health and wellbeing of these individuals, families, and communities. We – the undersigned health professionals – are calling on our country’s leaders and the Supreme Court to allow these programs to be implemented. Doing so will begin to turn around the wide range of health harms that burden these communities.
Consider the health consequences of failing to act. In 2013, researchers4 found that:
- At the height of the immigration debate in 2012 – when deportations were at their highest levels – approximately 152,000 children who were citizens had a parent taken away from them in that year alone. Over 660,000 U.S.-citizen children were affected between 1998-2012. As a result, tens of thousands of children were estimated to suffer declines in their physical health; have poorer behavioral and educational outcomes; and experience higher rates of poverty and food insecurity.
- Surveys of undocumented parents – focusing on the threat of deportation for their children – found that 75% of undocumented parents reported that their child showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder; nearly half reported that their child had been anxious; and 29% reported that their child had been afraid most or all of the time.
- Undocumented parents themselves reported experiencing considerable negative impacts on every indicator of mental health due to the threat of detention or deportation: stress, fearfulness, sadness, withdrawal and anger – as well as declined willingness to report crime and deal with institutions of government.
In this context, the federal government’s recent deportation raids are even more deplorable, and are sure to further damage the already tenuous relationship these millions of families have with our public institutions.
We applaud President Obama for taking executive action in 2014 with DAPA and DACA. In the absence of comprehensive immigration reform, we urge our country’s leaders to allow for the full implementation of these actions and stop the current immigration raids.
Any immigration reform worthy of our American ideals must have as its foundation concern and compassion for children and families. Prioritizing family unity will not only improve these families’ health and well-being but our society’s as a whole. By removing these families’ fear, we will restore their hope and their well-being.
1 Capps R, Fix M, Zong J. A Profile of U.S. Children with Unauthorized Immigrant Parents. Migration Policy Institute. January 2016.
2 Migration Policy Institute. Under Executive Actions on Immigration, Who Can Apply for Protection from Deportation? January 2016.
3 Capps R, Fix M, Zong J. A Profile of U.S. Children with Unauthorized Immigrant Pictures. Migration Policy Institute. January 2016.
4 In June 2013, Human Impact Partners released Family Unity, Family Health: How Family-Focused Immigration Reform Will Mean Better Health for Children and Families (www.familyunityfamilyhealth.org). The report examined how a continued policy of immigrant detentions and deportations at the federal level would affect family and child health.