Professional Guidelines for Psychological Evaluations in Immigration Proceedings

Assessment of social and psychological functioning and well-being can add valuable information to immigration proceedings and support government agencies in providing adequate care to immigrants seeking legal relief. However, at present, no guidelines exist for psychologists or mental health clinicians completing psychological evaluations for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and other immigrant-serving entities. These evaluations involve several complexities and risks. Professionals performing such evaluations serve a population in a state of vulnerability, and the outcomes of these evaluations contribute to important decisions for the lives of these individuals as well as their families. In view of this, a task force, rising out of the Undocumented Immigrant Collaborative Special Interest Group, was formed at the 2018 National Latinx Psychological Association (NLPA) convention. The mission of the task force was to delineate appropriate guidelines for the field which are presented here. These guidelines for psychologists and other mental health clinicians completing these types of psychological evaluations intend to provide a framework and promote quality and consistency on immigration-related evaluations. Guidelines are provided as a well-supported practical guidance for the practice of forensic psychological assessments (i.e., the evaluation answers a psycholegal question) and forensic-adjacent assessments (i.e., the evaluation is conducted on an individual in immigration court proceedings) conducted for USCIS and other immigrant-serving entities. This document begins with a brief discussion of foundational issues inherent to immigration evaluations and then presents the nine most essential guidelines the task force identified for working with immigrant populations. La evaluación del funcionamiento y el bienestar social y psicológico puede añadir información valiosa a los procesos de inmigración y apoyar a los organismos gubernamentales en la prestación de atención adecuada a inmigrantes que buscan asistencia legal. Sin embargo, en la actualidad, no existen pautas para los psicólogos o clínicos de salud mental que realizan las evaluaciones psicológicas para los Servicios de Ciudadanía e Inmigración de Estados Unidos (USCIS) y otras entidades que prestan servicios a los inmigrantes. Estas evaluaciones conllevan varias complejidades y riesgos. Los profesionales que realizan dichas evaluaciones atienden a una población en estado de vuln