The Trump administration’s sweeping expansion of migrant detention—marked by record deportation targets, daily arrest quotas, and the revival of family detention centers—is taking a significant psychological toll on U.S. migrant communities and their families. Some therapists working with these community members report a sharp rise in mental health concerns such as anxiety, depression, and trauma in their sessions, as fear and uncertainty intensify under the administration’s aggressive enforcement agenda. 

“What we are seeing are elevated levels of anxiety, hypervigilance, and panic attacks in individuals and families, especially those in mixed-status households,” said Hector Ayala, co-chair of the Latino Behavioral Health Coalition. Ayala also runs the Hispanic Community Counseling Services, an outpatient mental health organization serving about 4,000 clients in North Philadelphia. 

Ayala said the biggest fear for his clients right now is family separation, a situation in which one or some of their family members might get detained or deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “They feel that this could happen at any time,” Ayala said. “Therefore, they are afraid.”

Leila, who is using a pseudonym to protect herself and her patients, has a Texas-based counseling service with a large immigrant clientele where she’s hearing similar worries, also particularly from mixed-status households. 

“There are families where the parent is the immigrant or the refugee, but the child was born in the United States, and so deportation concerns are heavily rooted in separation,” Leila said.

According to the Center for Migration Studies, 5.8 million U.S. households are home to at least one person without legal immigration status. Of those households, 4.7 million are composed of both undocumented residents and those with citizenship or other legal status.

Attorneys are noticing the rising levels of anxiety too. 

“Every day, we’re fielding calls from clients who are scared. You would think that they wouldn’t be as scared as they are because they have an application pending,” said Juan De Pedro, an immigration attorney with  De Castroverde Law Group in Las Vegas.

Typically, having pending actions means being on the pathway to a green card. However, now that ICE targets courthouses to detain people who appear for scheduled hearings, these protections are uncertain. De Pedro told Prism that one of his clients was recently in the process of getting a U visa, a nonimmigrant legal status for victims of crimes, when an ICE agent arrested her and her partner. Now, she’s terrified to move forward with the courts, despite De Pedro advising her that this may be her only opportunity to stay in the country. 

“ She is so scared about possibly being arrested by immigration again that she doesn’t even want to take the chance—a good chance—at submitting her information to immigration,” he said. “She’s that traumatized.”

De Pedro began noticing an increase in client fears shortly after President Donald Trump took office in January. 

“[The administration] has educated themselves on how to ramp up deportations more so than the first time around,” he said. “We were thinking that it was going to be bad once he won the election—I’m not sure anybody was prepared or knew exactly what was coming.”

In April, the administration for the first time deported more people than President Joe Biden during the same time period last year, according to NBC News. ICE data obtained by NBC showed the agency deported more than 17,200 people in April, compared to more than 13,300 in April 2024.

The crackdown is leading to increased social isolation and loneliness among Ayala’s clientele, which he said is especially concerning, considering that former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared a loneliness epidemic in 2023. Some of Ayala’s clients told him that they now prefer public transportation over driving due to ICE’s traffic stop operations. Others are not showing up to work and health care appointments, or sending their kids to school.

Leila has also noticed that her migrant clients fear going about their typical routines, such as traveling, searching for jobs, and generally advocating for themselves. 

“Being able to assert yourself now comes with a big price,” she said. “There’s a lot to weigh out before using your voice.”

Ayala told Prism that children are internalizing these fears and dealing with consequences such as academic regression, sleep disturbances, or physical complaints like stomachaches and headaches. 

“For example, one mother shared with one of our clinicians how her child started hiding when sirens passed [which they] associated [with] the sounds with ICE raids,” Ayala said. 

With adult patients, Ayala noted more sleep issues, emotional numbness, and inability to concentrate, which impacts their ability to be present at work and for their kids. “The level of chronic uncertainty leads to emotional exhaustion and mistrust in the system,” he said.

Ayala emphasized that these fears are not new, but the Trump administration has elevated them. 

It’s not just about one person’s experience. It’s the cumulative effect of generations of displacement, loss, and survival.

Hector Ayala, co-chair of the Latino Behavioral Health Coalition

“The collective trauma in our community is historical and it’s ongoing, from colonization to displacement to economic inequality to systematic racism,” he said. “It’s not just about one person’s experience. It’s the cumulative effect of generations of displacement, loss, and survival that are tied into this.” 

Both sides of the therapist-patient relationship are feeling this heat. Ayala said he has clinicians on staff who feel helpless because they want to do more to assist their clients, “especially with the special resources that they need in order to maintain their legal status.”

Leila identifies as Muslim and South Asian and trains other mental health care providers to adequately care for these populations. She highlighted the importance of understanding a client’s worldview, especially during these times. “Clients could be very quickly misunderstood if we don’t understand them in the context of culture and spirituality and their identity,” she said.

For mental health providers who are not as familiar with the migrant experience, Leila recommended group consultations with other clinicians who understand the nuances of migration.

As deportations keep rising, Ayala wants those in fear to organize with others and use resistance as a tool to collectively heal. De Pedro’s advice for people in the midst of an immigration process is to focus on their own cases and try not get caught up in the news.  

“I know it’s hard because you have to keep abreast of what’s going on and what things are changing, but just because one thing happened to one person doesn’t mean it’s going to happen to you,” he said.

And for immigrants who may be scared to share these types of concerns in therapy, Leila emphasized that there are many mental health care providers who deeply care about these communities.

“What I want immigrants to know is that there is help out there that is confidential [and] supportive,” Leila said.

Editorial Team:
Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor
Carolyn Copeland, Top Editor
Rashmee Kumar, Copy Editor