Ongoing immigration enforcement efforts by the Trump administration have actively targeted the removal of thousands of people from the U.S.
Those removals — and even the threat of them — can have far-reaching impacts to young adults who are the children of foreign-born parents.
Joanna Dreby, a professor of sociology at the University of Albany, State University of New York, conducted 99 interviews with young adults in New York during ramped up deportations in the first Trump administration.
All of the students were U.S. citizens whose parents are immigrants.
Dreby compiled her interviews and findings into the book, Surviving the ICE Age: Children of Immigrants in New York, which examines the effects of enforcement-first approaches to immigration policy.
Dreby said long term effects for the children of immigrants include self-silencing about those experiences, mental health issues, and an undermined sense of security.
“My takeaway is that when you are growing up in a system, in this ICE age, when enforcement is a risk, that silencing is protective.”
Dreby said actions during this second Trump administration have continued to trigger past stressors and trauma for U.S. citizen children of foreign-born parents.
“I feel concerned about young people now,” she said. “I feel particularly concerned about young school students who maybe don't have support in knowing enough about immigration to feel empowered and not simply vulnerable to it.”
