Commentary: Fear of Massive Deportations in the United States: Social Implications on Deprived Pediatric Communities

摘要

The issue at hand is deportation. The setting is the United States. The subjects are the children of undocumented immigrants, who for the most part come from Mexico or Central America. In the opinion piece by Leiner and colleagues (1), the authors list the consequences of “fear of deportation,” which affect many of these children and their families. These include parents not driving their children to school for fear of deportation; families not reporting domestic abuse for fear of deportation; families not seeking urgent or preventative health care for fear of deportation; reduced opportunities for food and family housing for fear of deportation; and missed opportunities for planning for the future (1). The authors also list the consequences of stress-related illness, including higher levels of: anxiety- and trauma-related illnesses, depressive-related illnesses, family instability, all directly tied to “fear of deportation” (1).