Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
PARA Jóvenes, Norcross, GA, USA.
Health Educ Behav. 2024 Feb;51(1):71-81. doi: 10.1177/10901981231193695. Epub 2023 Sep 7.
Increasingly, immigration policies are understood as structural determinants, rooted in racism, nativism, and ethnocentrism, which raise serious public health concerns for Latinx adolescents' mental health. Our objective was to examine how immigration policy enforcement affects mental health of Latinx youth raised in a county with an aggressive interior immigration enforcement program. From 2009 to 2021, Gwinnett County, GA, led the nation in deportations under the 287(g) program as a "universal enforcement model," where local law enforcement were deputized to detain undocumented immigrants, primarily through traffic violations. From June to July 2022, we followed a participatory action research approach with two groups of Latinx youth who grew up in Gwinnett County. In total, 10 youth took photos related to the research question, and engaged in facilitated dialogue using photovoice guide SHOWED/VENCER for four, 2-hour sessions that were audio-recorded and transcribed. Transcripts were analyzed following grounded theory principles to arrive at a conceptual model codeveloped and validated by youth. Youth described how 287(g) led to policing and deportation in their communities, fueling stereotypes, and discrimination that criminalized Latinx immigrants. Youth linked immigration enforcement policies like 287(g) to exclusionary systems that contributed to fear, marginalization, and loss in their communities, bringing experiences of sadness, grief, isolation, hopelessness, and low self-worth. From youth-driven research, we identified mental health implications of the 287(g) program among Latinx youth. The cascading harms of immigration enforcement policies highlight the need to address these policies and identify immediate strategies to promote Latinx youth mental health.
越来越多的移民政策被理解为结构性决定因素，这些政策根植于种族主义、本土主义和民族中心主义，这给拉丁裔青少年的心理健康带来了严重的公共卫生问题。我们的目的是研究移民政策的执行如何影响在一个有积极内部移民执法计划的县长大的拉丁裔青年的心理健康。从 2009 年到 2021 年，佐治亚州格温内特县在 287(g)计划下的驱逐出境人数位居全国第一，该计划是一种“普遍执法模式”，当地执法部门被授权拘留无证移民，主要是通过交通违法行为。2022 年 6 月至 7 月，我们采用参与式行动研究方法，对在格温内特县长大的两组拉丁裔青年进行了研究。总共有 10 名青年拍摄了与研究问题相关的照片，并在四个 2 小时的会议中使用摄影声音指南 SHOWED/VENCER 进行了促进对话，会议内容被录音并转录。根据扎根理论原则对记录进行分析，形成一个由青年共同制定和验证的概念模型。青年们描述了 287(g)如何导致他们社区的警察和驱逐出境，助长了对拉丁裔移民的刻板印象和歧视，使其成为犯罪行为。青年们将 287(g)等移民执法政策与排斥性制度联系起来，这些制度导致他们社区的恐惧、边缘化和丧失，带来悲伤、悲伤、孤独、绝望和自卑的经历。从青年主导的研究中，我们确定了 287(g)计划对拉丁裔青年心理健康的影响。移民执法政策的连锁危害突显了需要解决这些政策，并确定促进拉丁裔青年心理健康的即时策略。
