As the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown enters its second year, researchers and healthcare workers report a growing mental health crisis in immigrant communities. Data from Zocalo Health, a primary care organization serving Latino families on Medicaid in California and Maryland, reveals sharp increases in anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts among patients since immigration enforcement agents began raiding farms and neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area in 2025.
Sophia Pages, executive director of behavioral health at Zocalo, notes that “immigration enforcement is functioning as a real time public health stressor in the communities that we serve.” The clinic’s standardized mental health screenings show alarming trends: more than half of screened patients had anxiety severe enough to interfere with daily life, nearly three-quarters were experiencing depression, and nearly 1 in 8 individuals struggled with thoughts of suicide—more than double the rate in the general population. Pages explains that “this profound sense of helplessness” underlies much of the distress, as patients feel unable to protect themselves or their families no matter how carefully they change their routines or stay home.
Impact on Children
The mental health toll extends to children in immigrant families, who often carry past traumas from their home countries and migration journeys. A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that the immigration crackdown has become a toxic stress for children likely to leave lasting impacts on developmental, physical, and mental health. Research shows children who experience a parent’s deportation face more than double the odds of developing PTSD, and children in affected communities report higher rates of depression, anxiety, and trauma-like symptoms that can manifest as physical symptoms or behavioral changes.
Ariana Hoet, a pediatric psychologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, explains that Latino children already face higher rates of depression and anxiety from adapting to a new culture while managing past traumas. The immigration enforcement adds an additional chronic stressor that intensifies these vulnerabilities. Mixed-documentation families report particular fear about parent-child separation, with many children acutely aware of the risks facing their parents.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://knpr.org/npr/2026-05-17/one-clinic-tracks-the-heavy-toll-trumps-immigration-crackdown-takes-on-mental-health