Clinical Mental Health Counseling: Addressing Humanitarian Issues Faced by Undocumented Immigrants

Running head: CLINICAL MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELING
CLINICAL MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELING
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

CLINICAL MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELING1
Introduction:
Immigration policy remains a hotly debated issue in the united stated with perhaps no
aspect more controversial than how to address the undocumented immigrants who have no legal
status. As discussed by Fazel-Zarandi, Feinstein & Kaplan (2018), the most widely accepted
estimated number of the illegal imagines who entered into United States through United States –
Southern border, especially Texas – Mexico border is 1.3 million people (Ehrkamp & Nagel,
2017).. The statistical report suggested that 24 people per minute, per day worldwide, are forced
to flee their home in 21. Vargas et al. (2018), reported that every year 1 out of 113 individual sin
United States were displaced due to the humanitarian issues and they are either asylum seeker,
refugees or internally displaced. Cravey, Palis and Valdivia et al. (2015), highlighted that the
majority of the immigrant, who experienced humanitarian issues are under 18yearss. The mean
distribution of the immigrants in 2016 was 22.1 million and it will increase rapidly in the next
few years. (Ehrkamp & Nagel, 2017). The humanitarian workers and migrants themselves
reported that the majority of the immigrants with an illegal status experience a high level of
anxiety due to a less welcoming environment. Majority of them were experiencing a lack of
shelter, mental and physical violence, especially children who were left undying due to lack of
medication (Chavez& Menjívar, 2017). This paper will illustrate Description of the problem
nationally and in the local area, operational definition of terms, current treatment, description of
the proposed program, Discussion of special issues and professional CMHC organizations that
can support the training and implication for counselors.
Discussion:

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Immigration seems to be making more heading more headlines in recent years nationally
and locally. While the worldwide estimation of the immigrants is 191 million, in United States
the estimated immigrants are approximately 38 million. Keller et al. (2017), suggested that due
to poverty and violence the majority of the immigrants are moving to the United States through
the Texax –Mexican borders. Peña et al. (2017), reported that United States border authorities,
Texas have detained more than 1000 undocumented migrants who crossed the border illegally.
The group of immigrants includes 63 unaccompanied minors along with entire families who
belonged to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Chavez and Menjívar (2017), conducted a
secondary review, focusing on the migration of Mexican and Central American children. The
researchers suggested that children who were migrated without their parents were approximately
86000 and while they take a similar journey as adults, they are more vulnerable compared to the
migrated adults (Torres et al., 2018). Due to lack of guardian and caretakers, they were exploited
and extorted. They fall prey to smugglers, human trafficking. Goodman et al. (2017),
highlighted that the majority of the unaccompanied minors experienced forced labor situations,
sexual slaves and violence. The vulnerability is demarked by geographical distance, genders,
ethnicity and language proficiency. The children are usually caused by local police due to
undocumented migrations. Considering the experience of immigrants’ adults, they experienced a
lack of shelter, acute anxiety, and death threats and fall prey into gangs and become unemployed.
Significantly a number of migrated women experience sexual abuse, sexual violence and forced
slave depending on their ethnicity, race and language proficiency (DeMatthews et al., 2017).
Majority of the migrant adults experienced the trauma due to the journey and the exposure. The
immigrant adults experience chronic distress, decreased self-esteem, helpless, increased anxiety
and depression along with hyper-vigilance. The post-arrival stressor experienced by adults

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includes interpersonal conflict, fear of deportation, discrimination, and stigmatizations, substance
abuse.
The operational definition of key terms:
The paper focused on the humanitarian issues faced by the undocumented or illegal
immigrants in the United States – southern borders, locally Texas- Mexico border. In this current
context, the key terms include “the humanitarian issues” and “undocumented or illegal
immigrants”.
“The humanitarian issues” is defined as the single or serious of events which threats the
wellbeing, safety, and health of a large group of people or community. The community may
experience crisis due to man-made or natural disasters such as conflicts, famine, epidemics or
violence or any other natural disasters, as observed in this case (Lara-Cinisomo et al., 2016).
“Undocumented or illegal immigrants” defined as refers to the migration of people into
the country without legal rights to live in that country. Illegal immigration tends to observe in the
financially upward countries and they tend to migrate from economically poorer countries to
richer countries.
Effective intervention and experience of working with them:
Franco (2018), explored migration amongst the Mexican and Central American
unaccompanied refugee minors with the aim of developed effective intervention for supporting
the wellbeing of the immigrants and identifying the factors that affect the wellbeing. The
researchers suggested that pre-migration stressors, post-migration stressors and in journey
stressors often result in psychological distress such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic
stress disorders. The selected group for interventions are immigrant minors and families who