U.S. immigration policy: Mental health impacts of increased detentions and deportations
- GAB NEWS
- Sep 6
- 11 min read
Psychologists highlight urgent need for culturally responsive care to address trauma and chronic stress
By Myriam Vidal ValeroDate created: September 1, 2025
Key points
The psychological toll of detentions and deportations, or even fear of these actions, is compounding the challenges many immigrants face, including the lingering effects of exploitation, violence, and family separation often experienced during migration.
Researchers face persistent barriers to studying the mental health impacts of detention, the conditions of which often resemble those of the federal prison system, where it is difficult to get access to gather research.
Barring reform of immigration policies, psychologists working with or researching the mental health of communities at risk of detention or deportation can strive to gain cultural competencies that can help them build trust.
Since the beginning of the second Trump administration, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has significantly stepped up detentions and deportations of individuals whom it says are in the country unlawfully. The agency has also broadened its authority to detain and deport people possessing green cards, visas, humanitarian parole, and other lawful statuses. As the psychological toll of these actions compounds the physical, economic, and social challenges that many immigrants already face in their daily lives, researchers and organizations focused on mental health care are working to better understand their needs and provide culturally appropriate support. Psychology can play a crucial role not only in treating trauma and chronic stress but also in helping communities build resilience, strengthen social ties, and advocate for systemic change that supports well-being overall.
The United States is home to the largest immigrant population in the world—46 million people, or about 14% of its total population. Projections indicate that by 2060, 1 in 5 U.S. residents will be foreign-born, according to the APA Task Force on Immigration and Health 2024 report Psychological Science and Immigration Today (PDF, 985KB). Immigrants benefit host countries by contributing to economic, cultural, and social growth; bringing diverse skills, experiences, and perspectives; and driving innovation and productivity. While some people migrate by choice, the number of asylum seekers fleeing climate change, violence, poverty, and political instability has surged over the past decade. In 2023, approximately 945,000 asylum applications were submitted—an 88% increase from 2022.
The immigration journey can have a profound impact. Many immigrants enter the country on skilled worker visas or as students, while others may face dangerous travel conditions, exploitation, violence, family separation, and long periods of uncertainty while in transit or waiting in limbo at borders, shelters, or detention centers. Regardless of an immigrant’s particular path into the United States, all of this as well as fear for personal safety, loss of control over their circumstances, and uncertainty about the future can contribute to anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other mental health symptoms—often persisting long after their arrival (Filges, T., et al., Campbell Systematic Reviews, Vol. 20, No. 3, 2024).
If migration travel is difficult, the fight-or-flight response is activated, explained Luz Garcini, PhD, a member of APA’s Board of Directors and director of the Center for Community and Public Health at the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University. When they arrive in the United States, many are still triggered because they need to learn how to survive. “You have to learn the language, the culture, and adapt and prove that you’re worthy,” Garcini said.
Although every migrant’s experience is unique—and approximately 77% of those coming to the United States become residents with authorized immigration status—restrictive immigration policies, popular sentiment, and structural violence continue to place many at a disadvantage (APA Task Force on Immigration and Health, Psychological Science and Immigration Today, 2024; Guillot-Wright, S., et al., Current Opinions in Psychology, Vol. 47, 2022). These barriers often limit their access to essential needs such as food, housing, employment, education, and health care—regardless of immigration status—creating widespread insecurity and hardship.
Ultimately, these overlapping inequalities place them at heightened risk for a range of mental health conditions—such as anxiety, depression, PTSD, alcohol misuse, suicidal ideation, and increased vulnerability to sexual violence—as well as chronic physical illnesses including diabetes, liver disease, heart disease, kidney disease, and more (Rashki, K. A., et al., Medical Journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Vol. 35, No. 1, 2021). “The body gets tired,” Garcini said.
Considering the impact of such factors on the well-being of these populations, in 2011, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) urged governments to formally recognize migration as a social determinant of health. Since then, researchers have increasingly focused on how immigration policies shape health outcomes, highlighting the critical role of immigration status, access to services, and systemic exclusion in driving these disparities (Gomez-Aguinaga, B., et al., International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol. 18, No. 11, 2021). “Migration policies are having an impact on creating these long-term disparities,” said Mitra Naseh, PhD, an assistant professor at the Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis.
In her research, Naseh has observed how visa-related stress can trigger anxiety, depression, panic attacks, weight changes, and a profound sense of powerlessness among immigrants without legal status or with tenuous legal status—or those afraid of losing it—along with their families and friends. They often internalize their vulnerability, blaming themselves for their struggles rather than the structural barriers imposed by policy (BMC Public Health, Vol. 23, 2023). “It was my decision. I came here,” is a sentiment she’s heard repeatedly. Many feel obligated to remain invisible, to be “good citizens,” and to avoid being seen as a burden.
At the same time, fear of detention and deportation can lead to depression, anxiety, stress, somatic symptoms, anger, low self-esteem, and behavioral problems (Bailey, C., & Widener, K., Current Opinion in Psychology, Vol. 47, 2022).
This fear may also cause individuals to avoid applying for government benefits, such as health programs, and to isolate themselves and their children from the community, which can negatively affect their children’s development (Society for Community Research and Action: APA Div. 27, American Journal of Community Psychology, Vol. 62, No. 1–2, 2018). And parents, fearing family separation, are more likely to keep their children out of school. This harms student achievement more broadly, according to a study of five school districts in California’s Central Valley that were subject to expanded local immigration raids in the first 2 months of 2025 (Dee, T. S., Recent Immigration Raids Increased Student Absences, EdWorkingPapers: 25–1202, 2025).
Such fears can also affect the dynamics of mixed-status families. Maryam Rafieifar, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work, has found that undocumented parents sometimes fear their citizen children might report them to immigration authorities after a disagreement. Legal status differences among siblings can create tension—one child may have opportunities like college and financial aid, while another may be excluded. These disparities can place heavy expectations and feelings of guilt on the citizen child, Rafieifar said (Child and Family Social Work, online first publication, 2025).
Furthermore, deportation fears can impact public safety more broadly, explained David Hernández, PhD, an associate professor of Latina/o studies and critical race and political economy at Mount Holyoke College. If, for example, immigrants witness or are victims of a crime, they may not want to report it out of fear of being found. “It’s sort of a double-edged sword.”
All these experiences can intensify when migrants come into contact with the detention system. Detention introduces a new layer of trauma—marked by isolation, uncertainty, and often dehumanizing conditions—that can severely worsen existing mental health challenges.
The mental strain of being detained
The United States has the world’s largest immigration detention system. Although immigration detention is a civil, not criminal, matter, the living conditions in these facilities often resemble those of the federal prison system (Saadi, A., et al., Health and Human Rights Journal, Vol. 22, No.1, 2020). These conditions vary depending on the type of facility (federal detention centers operated by ICE, privately contracted prisons, or state and local jails that lease bed space to ICE), but sexual abuse, overcrowding, denial of medical care, and restrictions on religious freedom have been reported in all of them.
To make matters more complicated, privately run prisons are held to nonbinding standards and have minimal federal oversight. And because immigration detention falls under civil law, most detainees lack key protections such as time limits or access to bail, with few exceptions, which leads to prolonged confinement—many are held for over a year while fighting deportation (Saadi, A., et al., JAMA Network Open, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2025).
Researchers have faced persistent barriers (particularly under the new administration) in studying the impact of immigration detention on mental health, mainly because of the lack of public data and the underreporting of mental health emergencies by ICE. But similarities to the criminal justice system have allowed them to extrapolate likely effects (Dekker, A. M., et al., JAMA Network Open, Vol. 6, No. 11, 2023).
For example, delayed or poor-quality care, inadequate nutrition, sleep deprivation, and practices like solitary confinement all contribute to declining health and well-being (Saadi, A., et al., JAMA Network Open, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2025). Given the existing trauma many immigrants already carry, detainees are vulnerable to developing chronic medical conditions, and the longer they spend in detention, the more likely they are to be at risk of mental health problems, including PTSD and suicide (Borschmann, R., et al., The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, Vol. 36, 2024). “Conditions within immigration detention can not only worsen mental health illness if someone has that diagnosis coming in, but they can also contribute to a new diagnosis,” said Altaf Saadi, MD, MSc, a clinician investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School.
Another risk factor is little or no training of staff in detention centers to recognize or manage mental health symptoms. “Solitary confinement is often used as a disciplinary practice in immigration detention, and our studies have shown that people with mental illness are more likely to be exposed to solitary confinement,” Saadi said. This results in the worsening of their mental illness (Journal of Migration and Health, Vol. 11, 2025).
Even when staff at detention centers conduct mental health screenings during intake, they sometimes rely on non-validated tools instead of those recommended by APA and the American Academy of Pediatrics (Sridhar, S., et al., The Lancet Regional Health–Americas, Vol. 43, 2025).
Risk factors also vary by gender and age. Women may experience sexual assault and pregnancy-related emergencies and undergo unnecessary gynecologic procedures (Dekker, A. M., et al., JAMA Network Open, Vol. 6, No. 11, 2023). Given the added dangers, unsurprisingly, women are more likely to develop a psychiatric disorder and higher depression levels while in detention than men are (Addressing the Health Challenges in Immigration Detention, and Alternatives to Detention: A Country Implementation Guide, WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2022). Children may experience PTSD, depression, anxiety, weight loss, and sleep problems, and those who get separated from their mothers are more likely to develop behavioral issues like hyperactivity (MacLean, S., et al., Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 230, 2019).
The mental health impacts extend to family well-being in other ways, too. When a parent is detained or deported—especially if they are the primary breadwinner—it can significantly reduce the family’s income, forcing the remaining parent or caregiver to choose between working to support the household or staying home to care for the children (Addressing the Health Challenges in Immigration Detention, and Alternatives to Detention: A Country Immigration Guide, WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2022). This loss often triggers a chain reaction, jeopardizing access to basic needs like food and housing, and can have other outcomes affecting school performance and engagement across public sectors (Gonzalez, G., & Patler, C., Sociological Perspectives, Vol. 64, 2021; Patler, C., & Gonzalez, G., Social Problems, Vol. 68, No. 4, 2021).
Further, the financial and emotional strain can lead the remaining caregiver to experience heightened levels of stress, depression, and sleep problems that can interfere with their ability to care for their children (Naseh, M., et al., Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 352, 2024). Naseh’s research has shown that children who experience this type of family separation find it difficult to self-regulate.
And children who are left alone because their caregivers are taken away have reported feeling extremely worried about the caregiver’s safety and experiencng anxiety, depression, and poor academic outcomes (Pinedo, M., et al., American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 114; Lovato, K., et al., Children and Youth Services Review, Vol. 95, 2018).
[Related: Psychological science and immigration today]
Further confusion amid deportation
When detention is followed by deportation, the emotions experienced while in custody often evolve into a new set of mental health challenges as individuals are uprooted from their lives, separated from family, and forced to return—sometimes after decades—to unfamiliar environments they may not even remember, especially if they immigrated as young children.
Some may feel a sense of relief for their recovered freedom when they go back to their home countries, but eventually this mood may be mixed with depression and anxiety. They may have left behind a life that they had established, said Claudia Masferrer, PhD, an associate professor and researcher at the Centre for Demographic, Urban and Environmental Studies of El Colegio de México in Mexico City. “Many have children whom they left behind in the United States, and they don’t know when they will see them again.” They may feel trapped between two worlds and challenged to picture the future, a feeling she attributes to the “policy trap,” when immigration policy first keeps them in the United States with irregular status and then in Mexico because the United States won’t let them return legally or safely.
In her research, Masferrer has also seen returnees experience confusion as they try to rebuild their lives from scratch, often with no money or family to help them. They may struggle to recognize people and places that have changed dramatically since they immigrated.
Local people may stigmatize them for having behaviors from the United States or because they presume them to be criminals. Returnees may feel isolated. “Many of their families don’t understand the experiences they had in the United States, so they also don’t understand what [returnees] are missing when they return,” Masferrer said.
Moreover, many individuals return to the same dangerous conditions that forced them to flee in the first place. They face fear and persecution. Researchers at the Global Migration Project have documented numerous cases in which deported people have been kidnapped, tortured, raped, and even murdered.
Meanwhile, families left behind in the United States must reorganize their lives, often forcing older children to take on adult responsibilities (Gonzalez, N., & Morgan Consoli, M. L., Interamerican Journal of Psychology, Vol. 46, No. 3, 2012). Some children blame themselves for the deportation of their parents. If the families reunite—whether they all move back to their country of origin or the parent returns to the United States—children sometimes struggle to recognize the parent who was deported or accept their authority. There is often a lingering fear of loss and the belief that it could happen again, Rafieifar explained.
Policy and community-based solutions
The current political climate has underscored the need for more research and coordinated interventions to support the mental health and well-being of immigrants. Solutions from psychology must be multifaceted, ranging from increasing the number of culturally competent health professionals to shifting the broader public narrative around migrants.
“A genuinely welcoming, compassionate environment can do wonders for anyone experiencing a difficult transition,” said Ané Maríñez-Lora, PhD, a research assistant professor at the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at the University of Chicago.
Schools also play a key role in supporting immigrant communities, she noted. As a member of the Coalition for Immigration Mental Health—a research-informed initiative based in Chicago that provides safe spaces, advocacy, resource sharing, and training for frontline providers and community organizations—she emphasizes the importance of preparing teachers and administrators with training on topics including culturally responsive practices, challenges of migration, acculturation, and cultural barriers that may impact learning and school engagement.
Community responses also include proactive planning for family separation. Rafieifar found that undocumented parents, sometimes with help from immigrant-serving organizations, prepare their U.S. citizen children for possible deportation by naming guardians and having open conversations (Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, Vol. 0, 2025).
For their part, health professionals should work to acquire cultural competencies that will help them gain immigrant communities’ trust. They should “conceptually know who the community is, what its history is, and what the legal context in the country is,” Garcini said. For example, the Latinx Therapists Action Network, an organization that provides culturally responsive mental health support and advocacy for Latinx communities, helps immigrants talk about mental health using their own terms for symptoms and elements of traditional medicine, aiming to reduce stigma and open the conversation. “If they can name what they’re feeling, and if they can equate it with something, that has a lot of power, and it also frees the person to a certain extent,” said Francisca Porchas Coronado, director and founder of the network.
Ultimately, the most impactful solution would be to reform immigration policies—the root of many challenges. But until that happens, those working with or researching the mental health of immigrant communities must keep in mind that immigration is complex and deeply layered. “I try to encourage people to think about the continuum of experiences,” said Saadi. “There’s potential for mental health consequences across that whole continuum.”
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