An undocumented immigrant father drops off his 12-year-old daughter at school in Los Angeles. Moments later, 2 black, unmarked vehicles surround his car a few blocks from the school. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrest him while his 13-year-old daughter watches from his car; she can be heard sobbing while she films a cell phone video of the arrest that later goes viral.1 An undocumented Guatemalan mother of 4 children, including 1 with cerebral palsy, faces deportation after 24 years as a Connecticut housecleaner and seeks sanctuary in a church with her 9-year-old daughter by her side.2One day after his mother’s ICE arrest, an undocumented Ecuadorian high school senior in New York is taken into custody by ICE hours before his senior prom.3 While waiting at his school bus stop, an undocumented Salvadorian high school senior in North Carolina is arrested and handcuffed by armed ICE agents as schoolmates watch from the bus; he is detained for 5 months and misses graduation.4,5 Another undocumented North Carolina high school senior (who crossed the border as an unaccompanied minor to escape Honduran gang violence) is arrested as he leaves home to attend school; the next day, one-third of students in his English as a Second Language class are absent.4,6
One day after ICE raids at a Las Cruces trailer park, the city’s public schools experience a 60% spike in absences (2100 students in total), including a 150% rise in absences in elementary schools.7 Recent presidential executive orders expanding deportations prompted undocumented parents across Wisconsin to complete Power of Attorney forms to protect their children in the event of parental deportation, assigning temporary guardians to care for the children and take them to school and doctors’ appointments.8
Adverse childhood events (ACEs) are associated with deleterious health outcomes in adulthood, including premature death, chronic diseases, psychiatric disorders, high-risk behaviors, and lower quality of life.9 One might reasonably assume that recent episodes described above of parental arrest and/or deportation or witnessing or being the target of arrests or raids would constitute ACEs. In this issue of Pediatrics, however, although Caballero et al10 revealed a high ACE prevalence in Latino children, they also surprisingly found Latino children in immigrant families were less likely than those in US-native families to have high ACEs, at 16% vs 30%, with an adjusted odds ratio of 0.46.
[For more on this story by Glenn Flores, Juan C. Salazar, go to http://pediatrics.aappublicati...10/05/peds.2017-2842]
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