"I Can Never Feel Safe": Latinx Youth Voices on Psychosocial Impacts of 287(g) in Georgia.

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.

Facing a dual threat: Pandemic stress and immigration policy vulnerability on mental health among Latinx immigrant parents.

BACKGROUND: Exclusionary immigration policies rooted in structural racism threaten the wellbeing of Latinx families, increasing stress, anxiety, depression, and distress among immigrant parents. The COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating and disproportionate impacts on communities of color with unique impacts on Latinx immigrant parents in mixed-status families. AIMS: From a syndemic theory lens, we explored the convergence of structural racism and the COVID-19 pandemic to explore if the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic may compound harmful immigration-related policies. METHODS: Our community-based participatory research cross-sectional study administered 145 surveys among Latinx immigrant parents in mixed-status families in Georgia. We examined the relationship of pandemic stress and perceived statewide immigration policy vulnerability to depressive, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms. We conducted multiple linear regression analyses to test these relationships and their interaction. RESULTS: We found that that greater perceived policy immigration vulnerability and reported pandemic stress were associated with higher symptoms of depression. Increased PTSD symptoms were also associated with immigration policy vulnerability, but not pandemic stress. Tests to assess if pandemic stress strengthened the relationship between policy vulnerability on depressive, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms revealed no statistically significant interactions. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that stress of the COVID-19 pandemic and longstanding anti-immigrant policies in Georgia were salient for and related to the mental health of these Latinx immigrant parents.

Immigration Enforcement Climate in Georgia and the Mental Health of Latinx Immigrants.

INTRODUCTION: Immigrant-related social policies and immigration enforcement contribute to a sociopolitical environment that affects immigrants' health. This exploratory study in six metro-Atlanta counties examined associations among immigrants' perceived vulnerability to harmful immigrant-related social policies and county-level 287(g) agreements (which facilitate cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities), county-level immigration enforcement levels (arrests, community arrests, detainers, and removals), and immigrants' mental health. METHODS: Using data from a 2020 study among Latinx parents who were undocumented or members of mixed-status families (N = 140), we merged data on individuals' perceived policy vulnerability and depressive and anxiety symptoms with county 287(g) status and immigration enforcement levels. RESULTS: Perceived policy vulnerability was not associated with county-level 287(g) status or immigration enforcement levels. Greater policy vulnerability and Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests were associated with higher depressive and anxiety symptoms, but 287(g) status was associated with lower depressive and anxiety symptoms. CONCLUSION: Perceived policy vulnerability, 287(g) status, and immigration enforcement levels do not always align and can have different associations with mental health.

Women's Lived Experiences with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF): How TANF Can Better Support Women's Wellbeing and Reduce Intimate Partner Violence.

Women experiencing poverty are more likely to face intimate partner violence (IPV), poor health, and stigma. IPV survivors are overrepresented among those who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), a conditional cash program serving families experiencing poverty. More generous TANF policies may be protective against IPV, but a greater insight into TANF's effect could be gleaned through a contemporaneous study that examines intersecting determinants of wellbeing and engages community interpretation of findings. Using an adapted Family Stress Model framework and analyzing data through an intersectional and community-based lens, we explore the impact of TANF on women's wellbeing through in-depth, semi-structured interviews during the COVID-19 pandemic with 13 women who had TANF experience in three U.S. states. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis in MAXQDA and researchers facilitated three member-checking events to enhance validity of result interpretation. Four themes emerged: (1) Low cash and conditional benefits provided limited short-term "relief" but contributed to poverty and hard choices; (2) TANF benefit levels and conditions increased women's dependence on others, straining relationships; (3) Women undertook extraordinary measures to access TANF, largely to fulfill their roles as mothers; and (4) TANF stigma creates psychological stress, differentially experienced by African Americans. Increasing TANF cash benefits and other cash transfers for those experiencing poverty, adopting solely state funded TANF programs, increasing funding for TANF administration, addressing TANF stigma and racialized narratives, and allowing optional child support participation or a larger "pass-through" of child support are important steps toward making TANF more protective against IPV.

Depressive Symptoms in Relation to Adverse Childhood Experiences, Discrimination, Hope, and Social Support in a Diverse Sample of College Students.

BACKGROUND: Young adulthood is a critical transitory period, with various factors impacting mental health and longer-term health outcomes, particularly among racial/ethnic minorities. Drawing from minority stress theory, this study examined correlates of depressive symptoms, specifically adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), racial/ethnic discrimination, hope, social support, and their interactive effects, among a diverse sample of college students. METHODS: We analyzed data from 666 racial/ethnic minority college students (57% Black, 22% Latinx, 21% Asian) attending seven colleges and universities in the state of Georgia. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Item (PHQ-9). Multivariable linear regressions included ACEs, racial/ethnic discrimination, hope, and social support, adjusting for sex, race/ethnicity, parent education, nativity, and age. We tested two-way interaction terms in four separate models to examine the potential buffering effect of social support and hope on the association between ACEs and discrimination. RESULTS: Participants were on average 20.56 years old (SD = 1.93) and 30% were male. The mean PHQ-9 score was 3.89 (SD = 4.91); 56% reported at least one ACE; 70% experienced racial/ethnic discrimination. ACEs and racial/ethnic discrimination correlated with higher levels of depressive symptoms; higher social support and hope correlated with decreased depressive symptoms. While hope and social support did not moderate the relationships between ACEs or discrimination and depressive symptoms among the full sample, racial/ethnic subgroup analyses indicated that, among Asian students, the positive association between discrimination and depressive symptoms was significantly weaker for those perceiving greater hope. CONCLUSIONS: Eliminating racial/ethnic disparities in mental health requires concerted efforts to prevent and/or reduce ACEs and discrimination and identifying protective factors that can mitigate their relationship to depressive symptoms.

The effect of increased minimum wage on child externalizing behaviors.

The Family Stress Model (FSM) has been used to show the relationship between socioeconomic disadvantage and child externalizing behaviors and suggests that interventions promoting economic security may be a promising approach to reduce child externalizing behavior. Using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study from 2002 to 2010 we examined the effect of minimum wage laws on child externalizing behaviors through a difference in difference in differences (DDD) study design. Externalizing behavior was assessed with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) using the rule breaking, attention problems, and violence subscales. DDD analyses suggest a $1 increase in the minimum wage was associated with a 2% reduction in violent behaviors (ß = -1.90, 95%CI[-3.12, -0.68], p = 0.003) for the most vulnerable families headed by a primary caregiver with less than a high school education. The study results suggest that increases in the minimum wage are associated with reductions in the most severe and costly externalizing behaviors among children. Study results contribute to a growing body of literature showing that increased family incomes have positive impacts on child development, and that minimum wage policy is potentially an effective mechanism for the primary prevention of violence.