immigrant families face new threat to children’s health: uncertainty - light measurement tool

Before dawn, the quiet coastal community of Live Oak in California exploded with noise.
Sandy Beck, a teacher who has lived nearby for nearly 20 years, wakes up in the bumps of helicopter blades.
Outside, searchlights in the air swept the streets.
Then there's a flash impact explosion.
Grenade blasts echo on the ranch and low houses
Apartment.
"To be honest, it feels like a war zone," Baker said . ".
When she and she were 16year-
The old daughter crowded upstairs, and the other neighbors were silent in the dark house, listening to the sound and cracks of federal agents opening the front door.
It was the day before Valentine's Day on 2017, the first immigration raid in California under the new President Donald Trump.
By the morning, the raid in Santa Cruz County was over and more than 20 people were arrested.
Baker teaches the father of a student at Live Oak Elementary School in grade 3 who is also in custody.
The raids, mainly for residents of the immigrant community Live Oak, have created a new era and predicted the experiences of immigrants across the state.
Soon, the streets of Live Oak, an unassuming enclave just two miles away, became quiet again.
But the new background noise-fear-is deafening.
S. Department of Homeland Security officials will target MS-
13. The agency has investigated an international street gang for five years.
The grand jury indicted 10 people arrested that morning on extortion and drug charges;
Their charges are pending.
But this sweep also leaves bystanders without criminal history, and the only crime of immigration, apart from living in the United States, is thatS.
Without permission, appear in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The Department of Homeland Security told the media at the time that 10 of the 11 people arrested for immigration status alone were soon released.
Nevertheless, the direct effects of these attacks spread like a bomb scare to immigrant communities in the Santa Cruz area.
The patient did not make an appointment at a local health center.
Parents who had previously flocked to attend school meetings suddenly evaporated and realized that it would be safer if they stayed at home.
Children stick to their mothers at Live Oak Primary School instead of playing between classes. One 13-year-
The old boy insisted on accompanying her mother to the nearby Scottish Valley to do housework in case she was deported along the way.
Over time, the extreme fear of living oak gradually subsided, but after more than a year, daily life still did not return to normal.
In the last few days of February 2018, a new wave of immigration arrests swept through central and northern California, totaling more than 200 people, dialed anxiety again-like every new news report on enforcement and policy changes --
The offline immigration atmosphere under Trump's leadership.
Ask educators, doctors and activists who work with these families, what is their new reality defined, and you will hear the same word over and over again: uncertainty.
"Whenever you go out, you think about it," said Maria del Rosio, a mother of two children and a member of the Parent Leadership Committee for the living Oak Primary School cradle career program, in Spanish
Del Rosio came to the United States. S.
From Mexico 13 years ago.
Her child is American. S. -born citizens.
"You may cross the street where there are immigrants.
They may be in the store where you go for lunch.
They could be anywhere.
Doctors and researchers warn that some of the most important changes are invisible.
What we can't see at the moment is that long-term fear is more than just a mindset: it actually erodes the health of the family.
For children, it may even interrupt the development of them and the whole generation.
Duncan Lawrence, executive director of Stanford University's Immigration Policy Lab, said: "It's not just about immigration, it's about public health . " Who studied the impact of family immigration status on the United StatesS. -
The mental health of the born child.
"The stress of these children can have an impact on the community as a whole.
"On an active Saturday morning in December, dozens of Mexican immigrants lined up along the asphalt outside the Live Oak Primary School Stadium.
For a long time, immigrants working in the home cleaning, landscaping and other service industries have gathered in Live Oak, where rents are more affordable than the nearby Santa Cruz and other beach communities.
Today, the Mexican consulate set up
There, people come from the whole area to solve the problem of passport and other government affairs.
When friends line up to chat and chew cinnamon cookies from a nearby table, any fear feels far away.
Advocates of several community service organizations seized the opportunity.
They walk around and distribute manila envelopes containing instructions for developing a child care safety plan: legal documents that provide for who will be in custody of the child if the parent is detained or deported.
Janet Solis, coordinator of health community building for immigrant communities, distributed the packages.
Solis, the daughter of immigrants, gave a personal speech in Spanish: "from small to large, my dad always said to me, 'If something happens to us, your mom and me, you will find the documents under the bed and then live with your uncle Hector.
That's it. It's just more legal.
Advocacy organizations such as San Francisco-
The United States-based immigration legal resources center is pushing these contingency plans across the country, in scattered states such as Georgia, Washington and Massachusetts.
Many immigrant families include American immigrant families. S.
Citizens, legal residents and people without legal permission.
Any day feels like rolling the dice: parents are not sure if the child's "dreamer" title will be established or not, and the child does not know when the parent will be taken away by the authorities.
Most immigrants have not witnessed a raid like live oak, but seeing it on the news is enough to scare them.
After Trump took office, immigration arrests surged, up 42% in the first eight months of his inauguration compared with the same period last year. U. S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement also gave up Obama.
The drive-out efforts are focused on the practice of the times of immigrants with criminal history.
On the contrary, anyone in the United StatesS.
People who cross with the federal government without legal permission-including those who attend scheduled meetings with ICE or do green card interviews with their American citizensS. -
A citizen's spouse-may now be the target of deportation.
Families have undergone a series of policy changes to increase instability
Known as "Dreamers"-those who are brought to the United StatesS.
Illegal entry as a child, but under the action plan for delaying entry of the child, they were granted temporary protection from deportation.
They also heard a public statement from the president calling immigration an enemy.
"Those predators and criminal aliens who poison our community with drugs and rob innocent young people-these beautiful, innocent young people-can't find safe havens anywhere in our country, trump said at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on July.
"You have also seen some stories about these animals.
"The resulting anxiety spread all over every corner of the immigrant community, even further.
"Now, every time I hear the sound of a helicopter or plane after dark, I will be vigilant," said Live Oak teacher Sandy Beck . ". She is a U. S.
Citizens who grew up in Virginia, however, added, "the heart starts racing.
I'm looking around.
I shouldn't be like this because I'm not a target, but I work with these people every day-I don't know who is at risk.
"Many people who feel fear are not immigrants themselves, but immigrants from the United States. S. -
Born children live with immigrant parents who lack legal status.
As at 2014, there were approximately 4 persons.
The Pew Research Center estimates that there are 7 million children in the country.
In California, there are about 1 million children in public schools, accounting for 16% of the number of students enrolled, and their parents do not have legal status.
At Live Oak Elementary School, some children appear in the office of counselor Brad Edwards.
He said they showed signs of anxiety, including a high degree of vigilance against the whereabouts of their parents, distraction from class, difficulty in sleep, shortness of breath and panic attacks.
The students told him, "I don't want my father to go to work.
Or: "He was 10 minutes late when he came home and I thought someone had caught him.
Or: "I don't want my mom out.
She must always tell me where she is.
"In his 14 years of counseling for children and young people, including five students from public schools in Los Angeles, this is the first time Edwards has remembered politics so openly.
Some students developed severe symptoms and their pediatrician noticed this and referred their family to Edwards for consultation.
Some countries, including the United StatesS. -
Born citizens ask their parents to move their families to Mexico so they don't have to worry about being separated.
While many students cry immediately after the raid and hold their parents tightly, most students have calmed down-at least on the surface.
Edwards, he said, suspected that they were still suffering the same anxiety silently, but "there is no way to know ".
Hard data on the effects of this chronic stress is difficult to obtain.
It's too early for Trump to see any health impact in a lot of government statistics.
In addition, researchers find it difficult to investigate and study a population that often wants to remain invisible.
However, on January 2017, when Trump issued an executive order to turn undocumented immigrants without criminal records into deportation targets, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued an alert.
"When children are scared, it affects their health and development," the college wrote in a public statement . ".
"In fact, fear and stress, especially long-term exposure to severe stress-known as toxic stress-can hurt the developing brain and have a negative impact on the short term --and long-term health.
Many studies, many sponsored by the United States. S.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have determined that severe and long-term stress during childhood can change the biology of children, making them more likely to encounter problems such as poor work performance, substance abuse, etc, depression and heart and lung disease in later years.
The impact of childhood stress on health may take years to emerge, but a large new study uses an unusual measurement tool to find a clear link to immigration policy.
Researchers at Stanford University's immigration policy lab want to know what happens to children's health when undocumented parents are protected without deportation.
As a result, they studied health care data for more than 8,600 children born in Oregon, which involved more than 5,600 mothers, who are likely to lack legal status between 2003 and 2015.
The researchers compared the health status of children under the age of 31 in June 15, 2012 with those of older children.
The difference is dramatic.
After the protection of "Dreamers" began in 2012, the health of children whose mothers were facing less threatened deportation improved rapidly.
Specifically, the diagnosis of adjustment and anxiety disorder in these children fell by half.
The researchers stressed that this diagnosis is not important.
"We are talking about extreme behavior," said Fernando Mendoza, who interferes with the normal functioning and development of children.
Author and professor of pediatrics at Stanford Le Packard Children's Hospital.
This behavior may include more recklessness, insomnia, whip at the classmates or inability to complete their studies.
Duncan Lawrence, director of the laboratory and author of the study, was surprised at the magnitude of the impact.
"It is not just a small change;
This is dramatic, "he said.
"These children's mental health problems have brought huge costs.
At the same time, parents are trying to reassure their children while calmly coping with their concerns.
At the Mexican consulate event at Live Oak Primary School, the atmosphere was casual and the community atmosphere was strong until advocates began to talk about emergency plans for children whose parents were expelled.
Most people are silent.
Adriana Hernandez of Santa Cruz, after the ice attack on February 1017, his son went to work with her and he asked a question: "I have a 20-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old
Can she take care of him ? "
So far, local service agencies have trained at least 70 volunteers to help people develop a child care safety plan. Urge which parents stay in the designated place at home and share with the person they choose to help.
Ten families in the Santa Cruz area have completed these tasks.
Now, other local schools find the parents of the students scared and also ask for a formal introduction on how to make these plans.
At Live Oak that morning, some parents were working on another contingency plan: building a safety net for their children in Mexico.
A consular agency called Civil o Civil allows Mexican nationals to register their American citizens. S. -
The children born are Mexican and are eligible for public service if they move to Mexico.
Under Trump, the number of people registered through Civil o Civil has surged.
The Mexican Consulate in San Jose, which operates Live Oak activities, doubled the number of registrants per year from 644 to 1,300 between 2016 and 2017.
In the larger consular operations in Fresno, the number of people registered each year has more than quadrupled, from about 780 to more than 3,700.
Psychologists warn that parents' fears can also affect their children's health.
Not only because their children can feel it.
In the spring of 2008, Homeland Security officials conducted a massive raid on a meat processing plant in Iowa.
As helicopters circled overhead, hundreds of federal agents swept and arrested nearly 400 migrant workers, almost all Latino.
Later, researchers at the University of Michigan found that the Latina mother, who was pregnant during the raid, had a higher risk of having a low birth. weight babies.
As we all know, low birth weight is related to the stress of the mother, it will put the baby at risk of long-term stress
Health and academic issues.
In addition, parents who are afraid to participate in society miss the opportunity to involve their children in daycare, nutrition programs, and other activities and services that may benefit them.
On January 2017, just after Trump took office, a draft executive order leaked to the media revealed that legal immigrants are considering deportation if they use public benefits such as food stamps and Medicaid.
Sandra Hernández is a colleague.
Chair of the parent leadership committee of the Live Oak Primary School cradle career initiative, the program helps parents provide their children with basic elements of health and learning, including good nutrition.
However, after Trump took office, her own family stopped accepting food stamps.
"When the president said he was going to start paying more attention to the person who was receiving this assistance, my husband said, 'This is it, and we will stop getting that assistance, which Hernan said in Spanish.
Who is president of the United States? S.
Twelve years ago, starting from Mexico City, he ran the cradle of professional meetings with a steady calm.
Her husband works as a restaurant chef and volunteer at school, making pancakes for fundraisers.
The family used to get $300 a month in credit through the CalFresh program to help feed their two AmericansS. -
Son born at the age of 6 and 9.
Now, herndez is looking at grocery sales and extending her budget within 15 days between her husband's payroll checks.
"We have to strike a balance between buying food for children and buying clothes," she said . ".
This is an issue that Santa Cruz County Human Services has heard many times from immigrant residents, with fewer non-citizens applying for food assistance and benefits.
Emily Balli, deputy director of the department, suspects that both fear and cost of living in the region have contributed to this decline.
Psychologist Kalina Brabeck found that this stress also affects children's academic performance.
She and colleagues at Rhode Island College and Boston College studied nearly 180 families with immigrant parents in Latin America and immigrant parents in the United States. S. -born children.
They found that children whose parents did not have legal status to stay in the United StatesS.
Things tend to get worse in reading, spelling, and math tests.
However, if their parents use social services for their families, their scores will be higher in some tests-just like the services that families like Hernandezes are now giving up.
Immigrants who enter the United States without authorization, in addition to avoiding social servicesS.
Moreover, they tend to be socially isolated and vulnerable to conditions of exploited work, meaning that they often fail to put the same resources and energy into their children as others do.
Yoshikazu Yoshikawa, a psychologist at New York University, found that the impact could last for a lifetime.
"We know that parents do not have a certificate that does pose a risk to the development of children from birth to adulthood," he said . ".
During President Obama's term, Yoshikawa studied babies born in the United States. S.
The comparison was made between immigrants from Mexico, China and the dominican Republic, as well as African-Americans, and those with and without certificates from their families.
As early as 2 years old, children of parents who do not have legal status show cognitive skills defects, which puts them at an academic disadvantage before entering school.
As these young citizens grow, Ji said, they may suffer from lower academic performance, behavioral problems, anxiety and depression during adolescence, and a lower level of education after adulthood.
He added that under the leadership of the new president, the environment for immigrants is even worse, "there will be very solid evidence that these effects are now more serious.
"In California under Trump, the Children's Partnership-a research and policy organization-has found evidence that children in immigrant families do face the risk of social poverty.
The organization conducted a survey last fall of 150 doctors, nurses and consultants in 2016 medical centers across the state to learn about the health trends of immigrants since the presidential election.
More than 70% said they saw more children with symptoms of depression, such as sadness, difficulty sleeping and stopping their daily activities.
Almost the same percentage of people report growing concerns among immigrant families about taking their children to schools, parks or recreational activities. Two-
Third, there has been an increase in family concerns about participation in public aid programs such as medical care
Cal or CalFresh food aid even if they qualify.
"It's not just about immigration," said Fernando Mendoza of Stanford University . ".
"This is about American children. S.
They are the future of California.
"At Live Oak School, the tension is intensifying in another surprising place-classroom volunteers.
California law requires fingerprint collection of certain school volunteers, and neither immigrant parents nor school officials are sure that these fingerprints will not be used to identify that they are undocumented.
"We don't want to encourage people to fingerprint now," said Tamra Taylor, director of Live Oak School District . ".
Therefore, the family coordinator in the area tries to involve parents by identifying tasks that do not require volunteers to get along with their children alone, so no fingerprints are required.
"As a supervisor, it's something I 've never experienced before, and it's never been like this," Taylor said.
"In these days of Live Oak, parents go to work and children go to school.
People attend meetings and parties.
Sandra Hernández and the cradle of her professional parents leaders are planning their year --
End the celebration, including awards, dinners, structured discussions on children's development and Zumba.
On the surface, daily life continues.
But deep down, things have changed.
"Last year, when the president took office, I was frustrated because I was worried that I would be arrested if I went out," herndez said . ".
She didn't want to leave home for more than a month.
Her husband and friends eventually convinced her, she said, "not to live in fear," and "that's why I'm really involved in school.
It distracted me.
Besides, I like to help others.
"Now, Hernandes is carrying her cell phone with a small red card detailing her rights and what would she say if any law enforcement officer approached her.
She tried not to let her sons watch TV news so as not to panic them.
If the family had to move to Mexico, she was worried about how her son would be doing at school, and they didn't speak good Spanish.
The safest place for Hernan des is Live Oak Elementary School.
According to the policy, ICE will not sweep in sensitive places such as schools and churches.
What upset her was the walk to and from school.