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The United States (US) deportation system and its recent applications have profound implications for the integrity and well-being of immigrant families. Since harsh policies were adopted in 1996, millions of non-citizens, mostly from Mexico and Central America, have been forced to leave the US. Despite the large numbers of people directly threatened by the deportation system, little is known about how it affects Central American immigrant children and families. A participatory action research project was designed in collaboration with local immigrant organizations to (1) document the impact of deportation policy on Guatemalan and Salvadoran immigrant families and (2) collaboratively develop services and advocacy that reflect local constructions of needs and strengths within these families. This paper reports analyses of interviews with 18 families; interviews explored participants' experiences and meaning-making of detention, deportation, and other forces that threaten their families. Analyses of interviews demonstrate how participants construct, deconstruct, and reconstruct the significance of current risks posed by the US deportation system; how these risks intersect with other threats to families, including poverty, state-sponsored violence, and previous migrations; and participants' responses to these risks. Implications for sustaining collaborative relationships toward enhancing human service work, community organizing, and redressing injustices are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses human rights and mental health activities in which U.S. psychologists are engaged. State-sponsored violence and civil war are generally the concerns of politicians, military officials, foreign policy experts, and the like. In recent years, psychologists and other mental health workers have begun to document the human costs of war, especially the psychosocial trauma suffered by civilian victims, including mental health workers themselves. Motivated by political commitments and/or professional interests, mental health workers in the U.S. have sponsored symposia on human rights and mental health, organized networks of exchange at international meetings, initiated professional collaboration, and more generally, developed and sustained personal contact and solidarity with those working in areas suffering from state-sponsored violence. In some respects this work is indistinguishable from more typical forms of professional exchange and the sharing of theory, research, and practice.