Interior Immigration Enforcement Experiences, Perceived Discrimination, and Mental Health of US-Citizen Adolescents With Mexican Immigrant Parents

About 5.2 million children and adolescents (4.4 million of whom are citizens) live with at least one undocumented immigrant parent in the United States. Increased immigration enforcement under former President Trump put thousands of mixed-status families with children at risk for family separation via deportation. Additionally, enforcement activities bolstered an anti-immigrant/anti-Latinx climate that encouraged discriminatory or racist rhetoric and encounters against Latinx families across the country. This study examines the extent to which distinct types of hostile immigration experiences, namely discrimination, detainment, and parental deportation, increase the mental health burden on Latinx adolescents with at least one immigrant parent. We used baseline survey data (n = 101) from the Between the Lines Study, a panel pilot study with U.S.-citizen adolescents (13-17 years) with at least one Mexican origin parent or caregiver affected by or at risk for parental deportation, conducted across the United States from 2019 to 2020. We examined the effects of exposure to different levels of immigration enforcement and perceived discrimination on mental health symptomology by fitting multivariable logistic regression models. After adjusting for other covariates, exposure to parental deportation significantly increased the odds of high levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms among participants. Similarly, exposure to discrimination significantly increased the odds of high levels of depressive symptoms and internalized stigma. Immigration enforcement and discrimination both appear to negatively affect Latinx citizen adolescents' mental health. In the absence of comprehensive immigration reform, evidence-based, family-friendly policies and interventions that prioritize psychological well-being are necessary to reduce mental health disparities.