The Trump administration’s relentless deportation campaign, which has evidenced that its purported goal of prioritizing the removal of criminals is not true, is directly and indirectly affecting the most vulnerable segment of the population: children, who suffer from the multi-pronged immigration crackdown.
Undocumented children are being added to the list of deportable individuals, even if they have lived in the United States for years and have never known another country. Those who are U.S. citizens but have one or both undocumented parents are at risk of family separation if their parents are deported.
According to a study by Brookings and the Center for Migration Studies, there are 5.62 million U.S. children living with an undocumented household member, representing approximately 8% of the 70.28 million children with U.S. citizenship. These children are considered “at risk” due to the government’s campaign to achieve the largest deportation rate in the country’s history.
Of these children, 4.71 million (6.7% of all citizen children) have at least one undocumented parent in the home, and 2.66 million live in households where all members are undocumented, either because both parents are undocumented or because it is a single-parent household.
According to the report, “the psychological effects of parental separation on children are severe and range from an immediate increase in the levels of stress to long-run developmental conditions that could affect health and cognitive and behavioral skills.”
Approximately 60% of undocumented members of at-risk households have lived in the United States for more than 10 years, and most of the children in these households are under 15 years old.
