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March 16, 2021 at 3:42pm
Undocumented immigrants who have children born in the United States live with a particular fear: What will happen if they are deported, and their children are left alone in this country?
“How do parents deal with this?” wondered Maryam Rafieifar, a doctoral student in social welfare at the Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work. “What steps do they take to ensure their children’s safety?” Rafieifar wanted to find out.
Even when their parents are not deported, many children are impacted by the precarious situation. For example, parents’ fears of being found out might stop them from seeking medical care for themselves or their dependents and keep them from taking advantage of state or federal food and other programs for which their U.S.-born children qualify.