AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The Trump administration has ramped up immigration enforcement across the country. Researchers and healthcare workers say this is creating a mental health crisis in immigrant communities. Data from one primary care clinic in Los Angeles, shared exclusively with NPR, shows a sharp rise in anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts among patients. NPR’s Rhitu Chatterjee reports.
RHITU CHATTERJEE, BYLINE: When patients come to Zocalo Health for any kind of care, they also get screened for their mental health. Sophia Pages oversees behavioral health services at Zocalo, which serves Latino families on Medicaid. In 2025, immigration enforcement agents or ICE began raiding farms and neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area. Since then, Pages and her colleagues have seen a spike in severe emotional distress.
SOPHIA PAGES: What this means is that more than half of the patients we screened had anxiety that was severe enough to interfere with their daily life. And nearly three-quarters were experiencing depression at a level that made them get through the day a struggle.
CHATTERJEE: And nearly 1 in 8 individuals were struggling with thoughts of suicide.
PAGES: What seemed to sit underneath it for many patients was this profound sense of helplessness.
CHATTERJEE: Patients said, no matter how careful they are by changing their routines or staying home more, they feel like they can’t protect themselves or their families.
PAGES: And that loss of control was deeply destabilizing and can intensify depression, trauma-related distress and suicidal thinking.
CHATTERJEE: A significant number of patients have past traumas from their home country and on their journey to the U.S., patients like Esperanza.
ESPERANZA: (Speaking Spanish).
CHATTERJEE: She’s a 29-year-old living in King City and is from Oahaca, Mexico. She’s a mother of two boys, an 11-year-old and a 9-month-old. Her baby babbles away in the background as Esperanza talks to me on the phone. She asked NPR to use her first name only because she fears talking to the press could harm the process of seeking asylum for her and her family.
ESPERANZA: (Speaking Spanish).
CHATTERJEE: Back in Mexico, Esperanza says she worked for the local government as a social worker. Her husband worked as a farmer and made mezcal, a spirit from the agave plant. But life was getting increasingly unsafe. A local cartel made them pay a fee to farm their own land and kept demanding that her husband do drug runs for them.
ESPERANZA: (Speaking Spanish)
CHATTERJEE: When things started to get really bad, she says, they grabbed their stuff and headed to the U.S.-Mexico border, taking care not to be seen or followed on their journey. The stress and trauma of it all has left Esperanza struggling.
ESPERANZA: (Speaking Spanish).
CHATTERJEE: She developed insomnia, she says, and was feeling anxious all the time, having palpitations, getting clammy. It was affecting her daily life, her role as a mother. When ICE began conducting raids in and around Los Angeles last year, Esperanza’s symptoms worsened. When she had to go to immigration court, she felt overwhelmed with fears.
ESPERANZA: (Speaking Spanish).
CHATTERJEE: What if they sent her back to Mexico? What if her kids got left behind? What would happen to them? She says these fears have also plagued her 11-year-old. His anxiety has made him cling to her, refusing to let her go anywhere without him.
ESPERANZA: (Speaking Spanish).
CHATTERJEE: She says, he worries about Ice taking her away, saying that if he’s with her when that happens, at least they’ll be together. Ariana Hoet is a pediatric psychologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. She says those are expected reactions from a child in his circumstances.
ARIANA HOET: So when a parent is stressed, a child is going to feel that, even if a parent is trying to protect their child.
CHATTERJEE: And some families have mixed immigration status.
HOET: And if you’re a mixed-documentation family, most children are very aware of that and live in that fear of, what can happen to my parent, or we know some parents have already been removed from the home.
CHATTERJEE: A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has become a toxic stress for children that’s likely to leave a lasting impact on their developmental, physical and mental health.
HOET: Children who experience a parent’s deportation – sur research shows that it’s more than double the odds of developing PTSD.
CHATTERJEE: And Hoet says the effects extend well beyond the kids directly affected.
HOET: Children in those communities are also at higher risk and also report depression, anxiety, and trauma-like symptoms.
CHATTERJEE: That can manifest as physical symptoms like bellyaches, headaches, changes in sleep and appetite, or show up in kids’ behaviors.
HOET: You see kids become more clingy, very anxious and worried. They can become quieter, withdrawn socially. They don’t want to do things that they typically do.
CHATTERJEE: In the Los Angeles area, the therapists at Zocalo Health who only see adults have been busy supporting patients like Esperanza.
ESPERANZA: (Speaking Spanish).
CHATTERJEE: She says therapy has helped her a lot. It’s helped with her sense of self-worth and with her panic attacks. Esperanza says she now regularly uses the tools her therapist taught her to calm herself when anxious, like breathing exercises, music, baking. She’s also joined a local church and is finding community and strength there.
ESPERANZA: (Speaking Spanish).
CHATTERJEE: Esperanza says these days, she’s able to venture out of her house, take walks and talk to other people. And she’s teaching her newfound skills to her husband and son so they, too, can cope better with their circumstances. Rhitu Chatterjee, NPR News.
RASCOE: If you or anyone you know is thinking of suicide or hurting themselves, text or call 988. Press 2 to speak to a counselor in Spanish.
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