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Studies Show Emotional Toll On Children Of Undocumented Immigrants

Immigration's Emotional Toll
Roque Planas
By 

National Reporter, HuffPost

AURORA, CO - MAY 21: Undocumented Mexican immigrant Jeanette Vizguerra walks home with her three American-born children on May 21, 2011 in Aurora, Colorado. Vizguerra is facing deportation to Mexico and is scheduled for a final hearing July 13 at Denver's Federal Courthouse. Just one of millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States, Vizguerra first came to Colorado from Mexico City with her husband 14 years before. She is a small business owner of a janitorial service and a community organizer for immigration rights. Stopped two years ago by a traffic policemen for driving with expired tags, Vizguerra was taken to jail when she could not prove she was in the country legally. Out on bail during lengthy court proceedings, she now faces the real possibility that she will be deported back to Mexico and separated from her family in the United States. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
AURORA, CO - MAY 21: Undocumented Mexican immigrant Jeanette Vizguerra walks home with her three American-born children on May 21, 2011 in Aurora, Colorado. Vizguerra is facing deportation to Mexico and is scheduled for a final hearing July 13 at Denver's Federal Courthouse. Just one of millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States, Vizguerra first came to Colorado from Mexico City with her husband 14 years before. She is a small business owner of a janitorial service and a community organizer for immigration rights. Stopped two years ago by a traffic policemen for driving with expired tags, Vizguerra was taken to jail when she could not prove she was in the country legally. Out on bail during lengthy court proceedings, she now faces the real possibility that she will be deported back to Mexico and separated from her family in the United States. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Silvia Rodriguez, 25, was born in Chihuahua and immigrated to Arizona with her parents when she was two years old. She says that for or the first 14 years, she was not fully aware of what it meant to be undocumented. “As time passed by, I found out that I had more and more disadvantages compared to my friends and people that I knew,” she says. “When it came time to apply for scholarships and financial aid, that was the moment it really, really hit me.”

Regardless, Rodriguez applied to Arizona State University and was accepted with scholarships that covered her tuition. But as a result of Proposition 300, Rodriguez became ineligible for in-state tuition or financial aid in the middle of her second year. “It was a really awful experience. I was so sad and depressed,” she says.

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