Repercussions of a Raid: Health and Education Outcomes of Children Entangled in Immigration Enforcement

Abstract

Interior immigration enforcement in the U.S. has rapidly increased over the past two decades, including increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity and the revival of workplace raids under the Trump administration. We contribute to the body of research that aims to better understand the consequences of immigration enforcement for children in targeted communities, including on their education, health, and socioemotional well‐being. We employ a mixed methods research design to investigate the effects of the sweeping April 2018 Morristown, Tennessee immigration raid on children's health and education outcomes. We utilize linked, longitudinal health and education data on children and a quasi‐experimental design to analyze the effects of the raid on those residing in close proximity to the raid. Interview data from community members and organizations in the affected area aid in better understanding how the raid unfolded and the mechanisms through which a community trauma such as this might affect children both directly and indirectly. Our results indicate negative effects across multiple education and behavioral health outcomes for children of immigrants living in the area targeted by the raid, including a substantial spike in absences from school in the month of the raid and significant increases in exclusionary disciplinary actions and in diagnoses of substance use disorder, depression, self‐harm, suicide attempts or ideation, and sexual abuse in the year following the raid.

Context, health and migration: a systematic review of natural experiments

“…We found three articles which met eligibility criteria. 79 , 80 , 81 Two articles confirmed the existing results of our review, indicating the benefits of inclusionary health policies for migrants 81 and the negative health effects of immigration enforcements raids. 80 A further study using refugee dispersal in Denmark to investigate the health impact of neighbourhood deprivation found no effect for dementia and a positive effect on mortality.…”

“… 79 , 80 , 81 Two articles confirmed the existing results of our review, indicating the benefits of inclusionary health policies for migrants 81 and the negative health effects of immigration enforcements raids. 80 A further study using refugee dispersal in Denmark to investigate the health impact of neighbourhood deprivation found no effect for dementia and a positive effect on mortality. 79 This result runs counter to studies included in the review, including a study on the effect of deprivation on mortality from Germany and on diabetes from Sweden.…”

Barriers to Immigrant Assimilation: Evidence on Grading Bias in Ecuadorian High Schools

“…We argue that Ecuadorian students with immigrant relatives may also experience discrimination that is similar to what their foreign-born peers experience. As research shows, children of a foreign-born family suffer the negative effects of immigration regardless of their own citizenship status-seeHeinrich et al (2023) for a review of this literature.10 In our analysis, we also include students from classrooms without variation in migrant status to improve the precision of our estimates.…”