The Effect of Deportation on Children

By Precious Barksdale

Antonio Torres ran across his lawn only to see his grandparents hand-cuffed in front of a police car. Soon after Antonio’s mother, Juana Torres, came out of the house screen door with her hand over her face and crying.

“We’re taking them to the detention center,” police said.

As the police cars rolled away, Antonio wrapped his arm around his mother’s back and walked her into the house.

“My son and I were very surprised and upset when they deported my parents,” his mother said. “They only told us that we couldn’t call anyone and that they had to take my parents away.”

The experience of Antonio and Torres may occur to children of immigrants across the country. Families are split apart by deportation, with no knowledge of their relatives’ return.

“The first thing we tell Latino families during counseling sessions is
to tell your children not to say a word,” said Norma Brown, Latino
outreach program coordinator for ChildrenFirst in Asheville. “It doesn’t
matter how friendly the police may seem, if children say too much to
the police, it may cause deportation to their families.”

Brown also spoke with the children of immigrants who participated in
this year’s “100 Stories” project conducted by the Coalition of
Organizations for Latin Americans in Asheville.

“The problem for Latino parents is how do you instill fear into the
minds of your children,” Brown said. “The adolescents especially feel
anguish and the fear of not knowing what will happen to their families
once they’re relatives are deported.”

Antonio and his family remained cautious about what they did outside of
the house. For the most part they refrained from driving to prevent the
risk of being pulled over.

Although Antonio worried about his grandparents in Mexico, he continued
his studies at Asheville Middle School and rarely missed days from
school.

“When deportation happens it causes the family emotional trauma, especially if there is a financial struggle,” Brown said.

Antonio’s emotional trauma generated deep fears that someone else would
be deported, that he would lose yet another family member.
Long-term or short-term emotional trauma could occur if the breadwinner of the family is deported, said FCD officials.

The primary provider for the Torres family is his mother, who works while he and his younger sister attend school.

“It’s hard, children can’t stand something that threatens their family,”
Brown said. “The adolescents become frustrated, scared and stressed and
sometimes take on the care provider role if one or both parents are
deported.”

Antonio lives in a household where he is taken care of by his mother, but this may not occur for other families.

“Some teens I talk with are old enough to understand that their parents
can be deported at any time, even themselves,” said counselor Betsy Herd
of Catholic Charities Social Services in Asheville.

Many Latino students said they don’t feel safe at school, because it can
be so easy for the police to find them; even at school among friends,
they feel vulnerable to deportation.

“It’s scary for them because many adolescents have lived here all their
lives and then all of a sudden they’re deported to their birth place,
what seems to them a foreign country,” Herd said. “Some teens are
deported with or without their parents and when deported out of the
U.S., they don’t know anyone.”

Antonio was fortunate not to be separated from his mother, but was still
devastated by his grandparents’ deportation. During the deportation he
translated the comments of the police to his mother before they left.

Although hope remains for Latino adolescents, the probability of
received benefits may diminish in the future due to the rise in
deportations, according to Herd.