Why psychologists are trying to save DACA from the Trump administration

If you have trouble imagining what it's like to be an undocumented young person currently protected from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, here is a good place to start.

Think of your family and how much it means to you. Remember your fate currently rests with President Donald Trump, who has vowed to end DACA and potentially deport you to a country you probably haven't visited in years.

You may not speak the language in that country. You don't personally know any relatives there. You're not sure how you'll make money, get an education, or receive health care.

If that basic scenario makes you anxious, depressed, or panicked, then you can guess why the nation's largest professional organization of psychologists has forcefully called on President Trump to "protect" DACA.

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“As psychologists, we are committed to policies that keep families together,” Antonio E. Puente, president of the APA, said in a statement issued Thursday.

President Obama created DACA in 2012 through an executive order. Trump is expected to announce his decision on the renewable program on Sept. 5.

Long before DACA, in 1998, the APA issued a resolution on children, youth, and families outlining the "unique stresses, prejudice, and poverty" immigrants face in the U.S., and how those experiences can put them at risk for emotional and psychological problems.

DACA currently protects roughly 800,000 immigrants who entered the country by age 16. Puente and other psychologists are worried that breaking up their families could have devastating mental health consequences for those deported and those left behind. Such experiences—or even anticipating deportation—could lead to anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

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Children and young adults sent back to the country of their birth may encounter the poverty, chaos, and violence their families fled. Relatives may not welcome them back because they lack the emotional and economic resources to do so, and in some cases, because they harbor resentment toward the returning family member. Youth could go on to develop mental health problems as a result of deportation.

Meanwhile, parents in the U.S. may be forced to consider or make unthinkable decisions as they face a child's deportation. Puente told Mashable that could include having to choose between keeping a job in the U.S. that supports numerous family members or giving that up to return to their native country with a child. It might also mean weighing whether to stay in the U.S. with one child who is a U.S. resident or leaving them in the care of a relative or friend in order to live abroad with the deported child.

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Puente says that some families affected by DACA may have the skills and resources to effectively cope with the threat or reality of deportation. Others may experience anxiety, depression, intimate partner violence, alcoholism, and substance misuse related to the added pressure.

"[Ending DACA] might solve a lot of short-term problems, but it’s going to cause a great deal of long-term problems," says Puente. "We, as a country, will pay for the injustices and unintended consequences such a program will have on so many people, though our economy, our moral fiber, and mental health difficulties."

Puente's perspective on DACA is unique because he was once an undocumented immigrant in the U.S. At nine years old, he arrived to the U.S. with his parents and brother, all of them political refugees from Cuba. He remained in the U.S. after his documents expired and ultimately became a naturalized citizen.

"It’s fair to say that individuals who made these decisions [about DACA] never had to face these circumstances and thought about these children in the way I have," he says. "If they could put one of their children in these circumstances, they might make different decisions."

While Puente knows not every psychologist is bound to agree with protecting DACA, it's clear to him and others that deporting youth that have grown up as Americans, and splitting up their families, poses a grave threat to the emotional and psychological well-being of everyone involved.

"Sending somebody back to a country they fled, where the status quo is uncertainty, chaos, and violence," says Puente, "seems at minimum unethical and, more deeply, unbelievable."