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The ‘Ineligible’ Families (Published 2018)

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The Trump administration says hundreds of parents separated from their children at the border are “ineligible” for reunification. What does that mean?

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In April, the US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, announced a "zero-tolerance" policy, stating "our goal is to prosecute every case that is brought to us". Under the Trump administration's new enforcement policy, every migrant who crosses the border illegally - even those seeking asylum in the US - is subject to criminal prosecution.

Since children are not allowed to be held in a federal jail, they are taken from their parents and placed in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).

Almost 2,000 children have been separated from their families at the US southern border over a six-week period during a crackdown on illegal entries, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

A DHS spokesman told reporters last week that 1,995 minors were separated from 1,940 adults between 19 April and 31 May 2018. Immigrant advocacy groups, however, say hundreds more have been separated since at least July 2017.

After being separated from their parents, the children - some as young as 18 months - are then treated as "unaccompanied alien children", a category which exists primarily to serve children who voluntarily arrive at the border on their own.

Unaccompanied alien children are placed in the custody of ORR within 72 hours of being apprehended by border agents. They then wait, in government-run facilities, for weeks or months while agency officials search for relatives or sponsors to care for the child while their immigration case is pending.

Reporters who have toured the facilities where families are separated by border patrol officers describe hundreds of children waiting in cages with concrete floors, kept away from their families. One immigration advocate told the Associated Press that a teenager helped care for a young child she didn't know because the child's aunt was somewhere else in the facility. The teen said she had to show others in her cell how to change the girl's diaper.

In the shelters, children are offered toys and books. But Colleen Kraft, the president, American Academy of Pediatrics, who toured a shelter in a border town in Texas, described children in distress.

"Separating children from their parents contradicts everything we stand for as pediatricians - protecting and promoting children's health," she wrote after her visit. "In fact, highly stressful experiences, like family separation, can cause irreparable harm, disrupting a child's brain architecture and affecting his or her short and long-term health."

The system is already overburdened, dating back to 2014 when tens of thousands of Central American "unaccompanied minors" fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries arrived at the Texas border.

Mothers and children wait to be assisted by volunteers at a humanitarian center in the border town of McAllen, Texas on Friday. Photograph: Leila Macor/AFP/Getty Images

Immigration advocacy groups and attorneys have warned that there is not a clear system in place to reunite families. In one case, attorneys in Texas said they had been given a phone number to help parents locate their children, but it was actually the number for an immigration enforcement tip line.

Advocates for children have said they do not know how to find parents, who are more likely to have important information about why the family is fleeing its home country. And if, for instance, a parent is deported, there is no clear way for them to ensure their child is deported with them.

When an influx of families and unaccompanied children from Central America arrived at the border in 2014, Barack Obama's administration detained families.

This was harshly criticized and a federal court in 2015 stopped the government from holding families for months without explanation. Instead, they were released while they waited for their immigration cases to be heard in court. Not everyone shows up for those court dates, leading the Trump administration to condemn what it calls a "catch and release" program.

Donald Trump has repeatedly and falsely blamed the widely condemned practice on Democrats - even though officials in his administration have publicly advocated for it.

Sessions, the attorney general, has argued that family separation is necessary to deter migrants from trying to cross the border illegally. John Kelly, Trump's chief of staff, defended the practice in an interview, arguing that the "name of the game is deterrence".

In a rare statement on policy, Melania Trump said she "hates to see children separated from their families". But she also blamed "both sides" for the current situation, echoing her husband's inaccurate claim that Democrats are responsible for her husband's policy.

The administration is facing increasing pressure from prominent lawmakers in both parties as well as human rights groups, religions leaders and immigration advocates to halt the practice of separating families.

In a scathing op-ed in the Washington Post, Laura Bush, the wife of former president George W Bush, wrote that the zero-tolerance policy was "cruel" and "immoral".

"These images are eerily reminiscent of the Japanese American internment camps of World War II, now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in US history," she wrote.

Republican lawmakers say they want to address the practice of family separation in a wider immigration bill but its prospects of passing are unlikely.

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Why are families being separated at the US border?

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In April, the US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, announced a "zero-tolerance" policy, stating "our goal is to prosecute every case that is brought to us". Under the Trump administration's new enforcement policy, every migrant who crosses the border illegally - even those seeking asylum in the US - is subject to criminal prosecution.

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Why are families being separated at the border? | Bipartisan Policy Center

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A new Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security "zero-tolerance policy" against illegal entry into the United States means that everyone caught trying to enter the country between lawful ports of entry would be referred for criminal prosecution.

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Estados Unidos: La separación familiar causa daños a niños y sus familias

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Funcionarios de Estados Unidos están separando a niños y niñas migrantes de sus familias en las zonas fronterizas, y ocasionan así un daño profundo que se prolonga en el tiempo.

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'Zero tolerance' a year later: How the US family separations crisis erupted

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It's been a year since a memo made the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy official. Here's a look at the key developments before and since.

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The Wall - Interactive map exploring U.S.-Mexico border

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Travel every mile of the border with an interactive digital map that includes 360-degree video and shows all border fencing.

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Un niño subido a barrera entre EE UU y México, a la altura de Sunland Park (Nuevo México). HERIKA MARTINEZ (AFP)

El asunto estalló en mayo del año pasado. La Administración estadounidense reconoció que había perdido la pista de 1.500 menores indocumentados desde finales de 2017. Supuestamente habían sido trasladado a casas de parientes o familias de acogida. A partir de ahí, tuvo que reconocer que, entre el 19 de abril y 6 de junio, había separado a unos 2.000 niños, a veces bebés, de sus progenitores o familiares adultos. El alud de críticas fue tal que Donald Trump tuvo que rectificar esa política. Sin embargo, una demanda presentada este martes por la gran organización de defensa de derechos civiles (ACLU, por sus siglas en inglés) apunta a que en el último año más de 900 menores de edad han sido separados de sus progenitores.

Con la entrada en vigor de la doctrina de tolerancia cero, cualquier adulto que tratase de entrar en Estados Unidos de forma irregular y sin los procedimientos correctos de asilo se considera un delincuente y se le procesa judicialmente como tal. Como los menores no pueden ingresar en prisión, ni permanecer más de 21 días detenidos, eran apartados.

La presión política, además algunas imágenes de niños llorando que crearon puro estupor en la opinión pública, llevó a Trump a anunciar que las familias permanecerían unidas, aunque sin explicar muy bien cómo, pues evitó desdecirse de su credo sobre la mano dura. Un juez federal de San Diego lo acabó de determinar al cabo de unos días, cuando dio 30 días al Gobierno para reunir a los niños con los padres.

Ahora, según el Departamento de Seguridad Interior, la separación de los niños migrantes y sus padres o tutores legales a la hora de cruzar la frontera es excepcional. La mayoría se debe a que los adultos han cometido algún tipo de delito (administraciones anteriores, como la de George Bush hijo o Barack Obama, apartaban a los menores si podían correr peligro de abusos o dependían de un adulto con delitos graves). La ACLU, sin embargo, alega que las actuaciones separaciones se justifican por delitos menores.

En concreto, el escrito de la organización, presentado este martes ante un tribunal federal de San Diego, señala que entre el 26 de junio de 2018 y el 29 de junio de 2019 han sido apartados un total de 911 niños migrantes. Entre otros casos, aseguran que un sin papeles perdió a su hija por una condena por destrucción de propiedad privada con un coste de cinco dólares.

Sobre la firma

Más información

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Más de 900 niños migrantes han sido separados de sus padres en EE UU en el último año

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El asunto estalló en mayo del año pasado. La Administración estadounidense reconoció que había perdido la pista de 1.500 menores indocumentados desde finales de 2017. Supuestamente habían sido trasladado a casas de parientes o familias de acogida.

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The ACLU and a Steering Committee composed of the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Justice in Motion, Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), and the Women's Refugee Commission have been working to locate the deported parents of children still in ORR care, document decisions about reunifying, and make sure the families are making an informed choice.

Of the 50 children with parents outside the U.S. who have not waived reunification, about 20 are waiting to be sent back to their country of origin to be reunified with their parents. Around 15 of themhave parents who haven't yet signed and submitted the forms required for reunification; approximately ten are still in discussion with their children and counsel about their options, and five have parents who haven't yet been reached.

Children with parents inside the U.S. (all numbers as of 10/15)

About 70 children in ORR care have parents who are still in this country. (The categories noted below do not add up exactly to 70 because of problems with the data that the government released to the public and the ACLU.)

Many of these families could be reunited if not for the government's opposition to reunifying them, along with other delays the government has not yet explained. In the case of 13 of these children, the government has not identified a reason why they have not yet been reunited with their parents. One of the 70 has a parent who is in the custody of government agencies other than ICE. Once this parent is transferred back to ICE custody, they may then be able to be reunited with their children. Two more children are not reunified because of "red flags" for an ongoing safety review.
Stop Separating Families: Sign the Petition
Twenty-six of those 70 children have parents whom the government have said are disqualified from being reunited with their children because they have been labeled "unfit or present[s] a danger to the child." These parents have been placed into this category and prevented from being reunited with their children on the basis of past allegations or convictions. The ACLU is concerned about this category given its inclusion of parents who have no criminal convictions outside of their prosecution for immigration violations, as well as those with other criminal histories that should not result in losing custody of their children.

Twenty-seven more of the 70 children have parents inside the U.S. who signed paperwork while in custody indicating they would allow their child to leave ORR care to live with a sponsor. The government considers these parents to have "indicated an intent not to reunify," and their children are still in ORR care, having neither been reunited with their parents nor released to a sponsor.

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Last February, the ACLU sued the Trump administration in federal court, challenging its illegal and cruel practice of separating the children of asylum-seekers and border-crossers from their parents. The events that followed shocked the world, as thousands of minors were locked away in immigration facilities alone while their parents were detained far away.

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A new Trump administration rule allows children to be detained indefinitely.

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in photos: life inside the tijuana migrant shelter

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In photos: Life inside the Tijuana migrant shelter

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As they wait to make their case for asylum, thousands of Central American migrants are living at the Benito Juarez Sports Complex, which has become a makeshift shelter in Tijuana, Mexico.

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Families fleeing gang violence are stuck at a pedestrian bridge between the U.S. and Mexico. They’re hungry, exhausted, and scared for their lives.

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Video: Between Borders: American Migrant Crisis

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From Central America, thousands of children fleeing poverty and danger make multiple attempts to reach the United States despite increased efforts by Mexico to turn them back.

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Migrant families left waiting as the border crisis escalates

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President Trump flew to Texas Wednesday, and said he plans to send more troops to the southern border after hearing complaints about the surge of migrants crossing into the U.S. Mireya Villarreal traveled to Bronwsville, Texas to see the crisis firsthand.

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What Can the U.S. Learn From How Other Countries Handle Immigration? (Published 2018)

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When you examine immigration policies around the world, the U.S. focus on family stands out.

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The Senate last week overwhelmingly approved a bill aimed at comprehensive immigration reform. But conservative opposition to creating a path to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally gives the sweeping legislation an uncertain fate in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

Eleven million undocumented immigrants live in the United States, but not everyone who leaves their native country for a better life aims to settle in America. Countries across the globe have had to decide who to let inside their borders.

As immigration reform comes to a head, we take a look at how other countries-those that have been recognized for having some of the most open, or the most restrictive, immigration policies-are dealing with their huddled masses.

Canada

To combat a shortage of skilled labor that has been stifling the country's economic growth since the 1970s, Canada has adopted one of the most open immigration policies in the world. As of 2010, the foreign-born population makes up 21.3 percent of the country's total population.

On April 1, the already immigration-friendly country launched a Start-up Visa Program in an effort to attract highly skilled foreign entrepreneurs. Immigrants with funding from Canadian venture capital firms or investment groups for a start-up business will be eligible for immediate permanent residency. If the new business fails, the entrepreneur will not be subject to deportation.

Japan

In a country where nationals favor a racially unique and homogenous society, the foreign population accounted for only 1.7 percent of the total population in 2010, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Japan's strict immigration-or, rather, anti-immigration-policies have drawn heavy criticism.

Like Canada, Japan is facing a rapidly declining population in which the low birthrate can barely match the death rate of the country's senior citizens. The population now sits at 128 million, but analysts estimate the number will have shrunk by a third in 2060, forcing the country to embrace more open policies.

Following the examples of Canada and the United Kingdom, Japan rolled out a new point-based system last spring to rate immigrants. Immigrants earn points based on their academic background and research or business experience, among other factors. Those who score higher-mainly professionals like professors, doctors, and corporate managers-will be given preferential treatment.

Australia

In 2012, Australia received a total of nearly 15,800 asylum claims, up 37 percent from the previous year, according to the United Nations. The country's Department of Immigration and Citizenship states that the Migration Act 1958 requires any noncitizen or person who is unlawfully in Australia to be detained. People without a valid visa are considered unlawful-including children. Migrant children, especially asylum seekers, have been detained in immigration detention centers for months or even years.

The Australian Government has responded to human rights complaints by removing children from detention centers and into community detention, or local housing. However, as of February 2013, there were still 1,062 children in the detention centers, according to the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Amid all the controversy, reports in April indicated that preparations have been made to bring children back to the notorious Curtin Immigration Detention Centre, which closed down in 2002 due to riots and protests. It reopened in 2011 and currently holds only adult single men. A portion of the center could be declared an " alternate place of detention," which the government does not define as a detention center.

Denmark

Denmark's stance on immigration has often been considered controversial. The largely homogenous country has reportedly offered immigrants cash incentives to leave if they cannot assimilate into Danish culture. The incentive was driven by the far-right Danish People's Party, which states on its website that "Denmark is not an immigrant-country and never has been. Thus we will not accept transformation to a multiethnic society."

One of Denmark's most scrutinized laws on immigration is the 24-year rule, which states that in order for the foreign spouse of a Danish citizen to qualify for citizenship both the Danish spouse and the foreign spouse must be at least 24 years old. The rule's purpose is to limit the number of immigrants, prevent forced marriages, and create a better integration process, according to a report by humanityinaction.org.

However, the law has prevented families from reuniting, sparking a debate over possible human rights violations. There are special circumstances where the law can be waived, such as if the spouse is a refugee, has underage children with connections to Denmark, or is handicapped or seriously ill.

Sweden

Sweden, which ranked first among 33 countries in the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX), is well-known for welcoming Muslim refugees fleeing war-torn nations like Iraq, Syria, and Somalia. But growing unemployment, which sits at 16 percent among foreign residents, and a recent string of violent riots have politicians and citizens questioning its open-door immigration policy.

Some critics point their fingers at costly liberal policies that created an abundance of jobs and attracted a steady flow of immigrant labor from nearby European countries. When job creation slowed, working immigrants stopped entering the country while the flow of unemployed, government-dependent asylum seekers picked up. In 2012, the number of asylum seekers arriving in Sweden jumped nearly 50 percent from the year before-hitting 43,900, the second highest year on record.

Opposition to immigration may still be in the minority, but the need for a more sustainable immigration policy has shot the Sweden Democrats, the far-right anti-immigration political party, up to third place in the polls and may give them political momentum in the 2014 elections.

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom saw a dramatic spike of immigrants in the last decade-from 4.6 million in 2001 to nearly 7.5 million in 2011, according to the U.K. Census. With the annual number of people entering the country far exceeding the number of those leaving, immigration has become the public's most important issue.

Adding to the problem, the U.K. Border Agency discovered last July that hundreds of thousands of migrants with expired visas may still be residing in the country, prompting the prime minister to call for tougher immigration reforms aimed at visa abusers. In late March, Immigration Minister Mark Harper announced that the government was considering a measure that will slap a £1,000 (U.S. $1,532) fee on migrants coming to the U.K. to work or study. The fee will serve as a security bond to be returned only when immigrants return home following the expiration of their visas.

Have you tried to immigrate to another country? Share your experiences in the comments.

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The Senate last week overwhelmingly approved a bill aimed at comprehensive immigration reform. But conservative opposition to creating a path to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally gives the sweeping legislation an uncertain fate in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

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Nos esforzamos por garantizar el bienestar de los niños y niñas afectados por cualquier tipo de proceso migratorio, tanto en su país de origen como en su destino, y para que la sociedad no tolere la vulneración de sus derechos.

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Trump Policy Would Allow Indefinite Detention Of Migrant Families, Children

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NPR’s David Greene talks to Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, about the new U.S. policy to detain migrant families indefinitely.

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A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to allow a small group of migrant parents it separated from their children and then deported to return to the U.S. The judge found that some of the migrants were probably coerced into authorizing their deportation and were given inaccurate or misleading information by immigration authorities.

In a ruling Wednesday, Judge Dana Sabraw of the U.S. District Court in San Diego declared the deportations of 11 migrant parents unlawful and instructed the government to grant them entry into the country and the opportunity to reunify with their children and pursue asylum claims. The parents were separated from their children under the administration's controversial "zero tolerance" policy.

The decision is the latest defeat for the administration in litigation surrounding its now discontinued practice of forcibly separating migrant children from their parents near the U.S.-Mexico border. President Trump was forced to rescind the policy through executive order last summer days before Sabraw issued a ruling blocking the government from carrying it out. The policy led to the separation of nearly 3,000 migrant children from their parents or legal guardians.

Since his ruling in June 2018, Sabraw has overseen litigation surrounding the controversial practice and has issued several orders on the matter, including ones instructing the government to reunite all separated families and identify all separated children in U.S. custody. As a result of his orders, the government identified all separated children and reunified about 2,300 of them with at least one parent.

Nearly 500 parents, however, were deported without their children. The plaintiffs in the case, a group of immigrant advocacy and legal groups, made what Sabraw called "Herculean efforts" to find all those parents. "Many of the parents were located in remote villages in the recesses of Central America, and nearly all of them have now made the difficult decision either to reunify with their children in their home countries or to waive reunification and allow their children to remain in the United States to pursue their own claims for asylum," Sabraw wrote Wednesday.

Out of the ones who opted to seek reunification with their children, 30 returned to the U.S. without permission, were placed in immigration court proceedings and allowed to reunite with their children.

For his latest ruling on Wednesday, Sabraw reviewed the cases of 18 parents who requested entry into the U.S. to reunify with their children. Judge Sabraw approved the requests of 11 of the parents but found that seven of them failed to meet their burdenof proving they were wrongfully removed.

For most of the deportations he declared unlawful, Sabraw said the decisions by migrants to waive their rights and sign off on their removal from the U.S. were not voluntary. In one case, one father said officials warned him that they would separate him from his eight-year-old boy unless he backed down from claiming asylum and agreed to his deportation.

"Fearing the permanent loss of [my son] in a foreign land to an unknown American family was too much for me to bear. As a result, I was forced to sign the paper in front of me that I could not read, and agreed to be deported in order not to lose my 8-year-old son to adoption," the father said, according to testimony cited by the court.

Despite what the officer claimed, the father said he was still separated from his son. "After I signed the document, [my son] was separated from me, and the officers placed my hands and feet in shackles," his testimony reads.

A mother who was separated from her son after being apprehended in late 2017 abandoned her asylum claim "as a result of the continued separation from her child," Sabraw wrote. The migrant mother cried constantly after the separation and often did not know the whereabouts of her son, according to testimony provided to Sabraw.

"She was thereafter allowed only limited phone contact with her son, and during the time they were separated, she suffered not only emotional harm, but physical harm as well," Sabraw concluded.

After six moths of being separated, the mother, out of desperation and under the belief that she would be reunited with her son, chose to abandon her asylum claim. But she was removed from the country and wasn't reunited with her son.

The judge said another father was subject to "coercion and misrepresentations" by an immigration officer. According to the father, the officer told him he could not stay in the U.S., even if he feared returning to his home country, because "the president had changed the law." The father was also told that only his son could stay in the U.S.

One father who was separated from his daughter was also deported unlawfully, Sabraw said, because one immigration officer mischaracterized the asylum system in the U.S., allegedly telling the migrant parent that "there was a new policy of zero tolerance towards migrants and that they were no longer giving out asylum."

The federal judge also ruled that some of the deportations were unlawful because migrant parents were not provided credible fear interviews, which are supposed to be conducted by asylum officers if migrants express fear of persecution in their home countries.
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Camilo Montoya-Galvez

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11 migrant parents who were separated from their children can return to U.S., judge rules

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A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to allow a small group of migrant parents it separated from their children and then deported to return to the U.S. The judge found that some of the migrants were probably coerced into authorizing their deportation and were given inaccurate or misleading information by immigration authorities.

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Can Trump Supporters And Immigrants See Eye To Eye? | Middle Ground

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Liliana Campos was on a train from Los Angeles to San Francisco when she got a text from her brother alerting her of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in San Bruno, California.

"Be careful," he warned.

Campos, 32, was overcome by a familiar fear. She had been a permanent resident for about a year. Logically, she knew that if ICE officers showed up in her neighborhood, they could not arrest her. But Campos said she can't help but be haunted by the fear she felt during her 22 years living in the United States as an undocumented immigrant.

The Trump administration's ongoing threats of ICE raids are exacerbating the daily fear and anxiety experienced by millions of undocumented immigrants across the United States. Without legal rights to reside or work in the U.S. or in many cases qualify for benefits such as health care, driver's licenses or higher education, experts say many undocumented immigrants struggle with mental health problems often without the ability to seek treatment.

There are roughly 10 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Most come from Mexico, Central America and Asia. It is estimated that more than 16.7 million people in the United States have at least one undocumented immigrant in their household.

Researchers and immigrant rights advocates have only recently begun to study the effects immigration laws and political rhetoric can have on undocumented immigrants.

"It's very alarming to be in a position to be in. Our fear response is activated every day for years," Campos said of the fear of deportation. "It has consequences."

Immigrant families that avoid routine activities out of fear of immigration enforcement are more than three times more likely to experience psychological distress than immigrant families who didn't avoid the same activities, according to a recent study by the Urban Institute.

In addition to causing psychological distress, experts say anti-immigration policies and rhetoric negatively impact undocumented immigrants access to physical and mental health services.

The policies, coupled with lasting fear of deportation, often result in depression, anxiety, or trauma related stress, according to Esmeralda Zamudio, a psychologist who works with undocumented students at the University of California, San Francisco.

Fear of deportation

Gustavo Guerrero, 27, said there's not a day that goes by when he's not thinking of his immigration status. "It's always in the back of your mind," he said, "You're driving, you're working, you're sleeping in your home, you're picking up your kids from school, you're constantly thinking about it."

Guerrero, who is originally from Honduras, said he swam across the Rio Grande when he was 12 years old. Guerrero, who is a musician in Nashville, Tennessee, struggles with anxiety related to his undocumented legal status. He needs counseling, but without health insurance, he said he pays the $150 per session out of pocket. He can only afford to go once a month.

Others, like Azul Uribe, don't learn of their undocumented legal status until later in life. Uribe came to the United States from Mexico by plane when she was 11, but her mother never told her she was undocumented - she wanted Uribe to assimilate, and to not live fearfully.

She learned of her undocumented legal status one week after her 22nd birthday - her brother told her over the phone.

"I'd gone from being this really gregarious, social, extroverted person to not being able to go to the grocery store when there were other people around because I felt like I was having a heart attack," said Uribe, now 35.

For years, Uribe was locked in a legal battle to fight deportation. She had trouble sleeping and lost her appetite.

"I was very anxious a lot. I was broke and I could barely take care of my needs. I was just very poor and very anxious and very depressed," Uribe said.

It would've been impossible to have a normal life - there was a constant echo of "You could be deported at any second," she said. Miserable and hopeless, she wondered: "How long is my life going to stretch out like this?"

Three years after the start of her immigration case, Uribe agreed to voluntarily deport from the U.S. Uribe said she left on September 5, 2009, taking a bus to Mexico, a place that felt foreign to her because she had left there for the last time when she was 11 years old.

Living in Trump's America

Uribe left the United States during a period of intensifying immigration enforcement that occurred at the end of the George W. Bush Administration, and the beginning of the Obama Administration.

Former president Barack Obama is widely known in immigrant communities as the "Deporter-in-Chief." Randy Capps, director of research for U.S. programs at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C., said he earned that title by deporting more undocumented immigrants than any president before him. However, Capps said, Obama focused his enforcement efforts on immigrants who had committed serious crimes.

Although President Donald Trump's deportation count isn't close to the number of people deported under Obama, Capps said, "the rhetoric is different, and the intention is different."

Trump's stance on immigration became apparent early on in his campaign when he promised to build a wall on Mexico's dime, called immigrants animals, rapists and "bad hombres" and vowed to end DACA, a deportation deferral permit for those who were brought to the U.S. as children during a certain time period. Many immigrants, researchers and clinicians say the danger for the immigrant community is not just in Trump's own language and policies, but in the behavior he empowers with it.

Trump has recently come under fire after a mass shooting this month at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. The gunman allegedly posted hateful, anti-immigrant writing online before the attack that killed 22 people and injured 24.

The anti-immigrant rhetoric is damaging in the daily lives of the Latinx community, experts say. Zamudio explained that regularly hearing negative things about yourself and your community can impact mental health, confidence and self esteem.

"It really impacts your ability to thrive," Zamudio said.

Campos, who was undocumented for 22 years before gaining legal status, is now working toward a doctoral degree in clinical psychology at the University of San Francisco. She is also the Mental Health Advocate at Immigrants Rising, where she is working on an online service that connects undocumented young people with pro bono mental health clinicians.

"This is the research I do. I think about it, I write about it, I read about it and I see it. But I also live it," Campos said.

She studies the mental health outcomes of the lasting fear of deportation. It's hard for her sometimes, she said. Everyday can feel like preparing for battle because her work requires her to stay informed on immigration news, which often features anti-immigration policy and rhetoric, she said.

"I feel like I've lived my entire life in this country on survival mode," Campos said. "I don't know anything else but continuing to fight for my community and myself, hoping that we will have justice and access to what we deserve as human beings."

Surviving psychological distress

Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, who is now the director of children and family services at Lutheran Immigrant and Refugee Services in Washington, D.C., said that changes to sleeping and eating patterns can be the biggest indication that someone is under psychological distress.

"What I found to be unique about the migrant community is so often they do not realize they have a mental health condition," Lorenzen-Strait said. "And they don't even know to ask for help. And they don't even know how to recognize the signs and symptoms of depression, post-traumatic stress issues or even the highest issues schizophrenia, bipolar, because that type of issue and condition is foreign to them."

Jennifer Garcia Mendoza works with United We Dream, a national organization to support undocumented youth, educating undocumented immigrants all over the country about indigenous healing practices and self care methods they can employ if they can't access more formal mental health services.

Garcia Mendoza, 23, was brought to the United States without legal authorization from Mexico with her older brother when she was 8 years old. About two years after they arrived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Garcia Mendoza said, her brother began suffering with bipolar disorder.

Her parents, also undocumented, were fearful of being discovered and were unaware of what options they had to treat their struggling teenage son in the United States. Garcia Mendoza said her parents felt they had no choice but to send him back to Mexico to live with family and receive treatment.

The painful experience of growing up without her brother motivated her to study at the New Mexico School of Natural Therapeutics, and dedicate her life to helping other people in the undocumented community acknowledge and cope with the stress in healthy ways.

Through the UndocuHealth program, Garcia Mendoza teaches other undocumented immigrants about holistic health practices like yoga and meditative breathing. Garcia Mendoza said she hopes to help them transform their pain and fear into something that drives them forward.

U.S. citizens who are family members feel it, too

Undocumented immigrants living in fear of deportation are not the only ones dealing with the consequences - oftentimes, their American citizen family members suffer, too.

Cassaundra Rodriguez, a sociology professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said that U.S. citizen children of undocumented immigrants live in fear of their parents being deported, and it also affects their sense of membership in the United States.

Cristian Solano-Córdova said it can be tough not to internalize the anti-immigrant rhetoric, "especially when society is telling you that you're, you know, evil, that you're a criminal, that you're a rapist."

Solano-Córdova said his sister was 8 years old in November 2016, when Trump was elected.

"On election night she asked me if she was going to get deported," Solano-Córdova said. "I was like, 'Baby, do you know what that word means?' It's really sad."

Solano-Córdova, 27, who immigrated to the United States without legal authorization from Mexico when he was a child, now works with the Colorado Immigrants Rights Coalition. He struggles with anxiety relating to his undocumented legal status but said he is empowered by working with the undocumented community - he knows he's not alone.

Solano-Córdova had always wanted to become a doctor, but now that he is working in immigration advocacy, he said he can't stand the thought of not doing something to alleviate the situation for immigrants in the United States. He is haunted, he said, by the possibility of one day "potentially going home and finding my mom's house empty and my little sister just sitting there alone."

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Endless fear: Undocumented immigrants grapple with anxiety, depression under Trump

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Liliana Campos was on a train from Los Angeles to San Francisco when she got a text from her brother alerting her of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in San Bruno, California. "Be careful," he warned. Campos, 32, was overcome by a familiar fear. She had been a permanent resident for about a year.