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Approximately 4.5 million U.S. citizen children live in mixed-status families, in which at least 1 family member is an unauthorized migrant and therefore vulnerable to detention and deportation from the United States (Passel & Cohn, 2011). This article critically examines the current state of the literature on the psychosocial consequences of detention and deportation for unauthorized migrants, mixed-status families, and their U.S.-born children. In particular, drawing on social and psychological theory and research, we (a) review the impact of parents' unauthorized status on children; (b) summarize the literature on the impact of detention processes on psychosocial well-being; (c) describe the dilemma faced by a mixed-status family when a parent faces deportation; (d) examine the current social scientific literature on how parental deportation impacts children and their families; and (e) summarize several policy recommendations for protecting children and families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores whether and how documented and undocumented migrant parents communicate with their children about the threats posed by the intensified enforcement of 1996 and 2001 US immigration reforms; whether parents facing potential detention and deportation plan for the care of their children; and whether their children learn from other sources about detention and deportation. The focus of this paper emerged in the context of a multiyear participatory and action research (PAR) process as one effort to understand the multiple meanings and divergent perspectives on parental -child communication that arose among and between participants and coresearchers. The aim is to better understand, in parents' own voices, their embrace of and resistance to direct communication with their children about the threat of deportation. Data are triangulated from in-depth interviews with 18 Central American immigrant coresearchers (Study 1), responses of 132 Latino/a immigrant parents to a survey with open-ended questions (Study 2), and conversations in a series of community meetings and workshops. Findings confirm the importance for advocates, service providers, and researchers to understand migrant parents' decisions about communication within the context of family and community values; gender expectations; lived and psychological experiences of being criminalized; and strategies to manage daily challenges of living without documents while parenting US-citizen children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interdisciplinary participatory action research (PAR) project was designed in collaboration with local immigrant organizations to document the impact of deportation policy on Central American immigrant families living in the northeastern U.S. This paper reports on selected methodological challenges of university-based co-researchers in this community-university PAR process which is currently concluding its fourth year. The paper discusses the iterative action-reflection processes focusing on: (1) an overview of the PAR project and its multiple phases within the U.S. and in Guatemala; (2) select challenges and contributions of the PAR approach for participating immigrant families "living in the shadows" and, (3) methodological concerns from the three co-authors, who include a graduate student who joined the early stages of partnership-building; an assistant professor in the early stages of her career; and a senior scholar with many years of experience in activist scholarship. We conclude with thoughts on why, despite these challenges, PAR is "worth the trouble". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]