Studies show that exposure to harsh immigration enforcement and separation from a primary caregiver is a form of “toxic stress“ that increases future risks of physical and mental illness. Such risks are heightened when they occur on top of “prior exposure to violence, poverty, and family loss in countries of origin,” according to the Psychiatric News report. Jazmin touches her son’s hand-knit beanie — a gift his father made for him while in immigration detention. His preschool teacher noticed Carlos was “happier than he had been” on the days he wore it. Photo by Julie Leopo for MindSite News/CatchLight.

A 2022 study in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management looked at the ways that the children of immigrants living near Morristown, Tennessee, were affected over the year following a massive immigration raid in that community. The researchers found “a substantial spike in absences from school in the month of the raid and significant increases in exclusionary disciplinary actions and in diagnoses of substance use disorder, depression, self-harm, suicide attempts or ideation, and sexual abuse.”

Another study, published in 2020 in the Journal of Traumatic Stress, looked at 458 migrant children and adolescents who were seen in mental health clinics and found that 43% of them were diagnosed with PTSD and 24% with depression. Of those, almost half of the children — 49% — said they were experiencing three or more problematic behaviors ranging from academic problems and skipping or acting out in school to substance use, having suicidal thoughts or attempts, or being physically aggressive towards others.

In a commentary published in March in the New England Journal of Medicine, a team of clinicians and researchers made this point:

“For physicians, mental health clinicians, and public health professionals, the evidence is unequivocal: separating parents and caregivers from young children causes preventable, policy-driven trauma with long-term consequences for child health and development. Separation is not merely stressful for young children — it is toxic.”