Anxiety, trauma, and stress: Immigration enforcement’s hidden psychological toll on families

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The Weekly Dispatch

Community-powered immigration news from the Bay Area.

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Welcome to El Tímpano’s Weekly Dispatch. I’m Vanessa G. Sánchez, senior health equity reporter, filling in for Erica Hellerstein this week.

Images of immigrants being abducted by masked federal agents have flooded our feeds since President Donald Trump took office. Yet while these scenes tend to dominate headlines, advocates and mental health experts say there’s less attention placed on the families who are left to pick up the pieces.

One example is Angela, a 69-year-old Bay Area resident whose son was detained by ICE in March. Originally from El Salvador, Angela has asked the newsroom to identify her by first name only due to fears of retribution from immigration officials.

ICE detained Angela’s son, Rafael Montoya, outside of his car in San Mateo on a Sunday morning as he was heading to work. Montoya, 43, was arrested and transferred to a detention center even though he had an asylum case open and had attended regular check-ins with an immigration officer, his mother said.  

Since the day of Rafael’s arrest, Angela says she has barely been able to sleep. Her blood pressure spikes more often, and her back pains have worsened, leaving her unable to move some days.

“I wake up at one or two in the morning, I see his empty bed and I start to think about what’s going to happen to my son,” Angela told me. “I feel really anxious and desperate.”

Angela’s physical and emotional decline in the aftermath of her son’s detention is not unique. It’s being felt by families across the U.S. as the Trump administration ramps up its mass deportation campaign, often in neighborhoods immigrants have lived in for decades. Since Trump took office, nearly 200,000 people have been arrested by immigration officials, according to an analysis by The Guardian. These separations leave lasting scars. When a person is detained or deported, grieving family members like Angela are left to navigate the fallout: emotional and health consequences, financial hardship, and uncertainty. Every aspect of their life is impacted.

And these separations affect more than just individual families, too. Lisa Fortuna, psychiatrist and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at the UC Riverside School of Medicine, said the administration’s immigration escalation is destabilizing entire communities while also increasing individuals’ anxiety and depression, especially among children and youth. Fearful of immigration enforcement, some families isolate, choosing to withdraw from outdoor activities, programs and social services.

 “People start retreating from those things because of fear of raids and separation,” said Fortuna, who has spent decades studying the mental health of immigrant Latinos, including children and adolescents.

Angela, for example, has not visited her primary care doctor since her son was taken. “I’m afraid to go to the hospital. You hear stories that even there someone can report you to immigration,” she said. Her health care provider mails her blood pressure medication.

Exacerbating the emotional distress is a sense of profound instability. Advocates say the administration’s aggressive tactics — arbitrary abductions by masked men identifying themselves as federal agents, detentions of people even en route to court hearings — have deepened immigrants’ feelings of uncertainty. Nobody knows who might be targeted next.

“People are not only being arrested, they are being kidnapped,” said Alma Santana, director of immigrant rights at Mujeres Unidas y Activas, a Latina immigrant women’s organization in the Bay Area. “Families sometimes don’t hear from their loved ones for days, even weeks.”  

Santana said immigrants who have a loved one in detention are also experiencing severe financial hardship. “Many of the people being detained are the breadwinners,” said Santana. “We’re seeing families who lose their homes, who can’t afford food.”

Angela shared apartment and household expenses with her son, but now that he’s gone, she struggles to pay rent and put food on the table. “My son was my only economic support to pay rent or for anything I needed,” she said.

Still, she has sought out support and built new routines to cope with her trauma and pain. 

Recently, Angela’s daughter moved in with her to keep her company. Every Thursday, she virtually attends a support group with people who are going through a similar situation. “It helps me because I feel that I’m not alone,” she said.

Leaving the house makes Angela anxious, but she continues to advocate for his son’s release. She joined the Godmothers of the Disappeared, a Bay Area group of interfaith allies and women whose loved ones have been detained, abducted, or deported, to raise awareness about the consequences of family separation.

Wearing a white bandana and a mask, she stood in front of ICE’s field office in San Francisco during a prayer vigil last month. 

“I’m scared, but I’ll be in the streets advocating for my son as long as I have strength,” she said.   

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading and see you next week.

P.S.: How are immigration policies affecting your physical and mental health? If you want to share your experience, please feel free to reach out to me at vsanchez@eltimpano.org. You can also contact me by phone or on Signal at 510-919-8593

Ear to the Ground

El Tímpano’s text messaging (SMS) service reaches more than 6,000 Spanish-speaking immigrants across the Bay Area. Over the last few months, community members have shared questions and concerns about local immigration enforcement. Here are a few of their responses:

I received information that ICE was at the laundromat, but that wasn’t true. I told some people, and they went to check, but it turned out to be a construction vehicle, and we were scared. 

Me espantaron que inmigración estaba en la lavandería, pero no era cierto. Yo avisé a algunas personas y fueron a revisar y era un vehículo de construcción mientras estábamos espantados.

—Brentwood resident 

Is there a hotline to report immigration activity in Richmond?

¿Sabes si hay alguna línea directa para avisar de actividad de migración en Richmond?

—Richmond resident 

Will ICE be in Antioch today?

¿Quería preguntar si hoy va a estar inmigración en Antioch?

—Antioch resident 

• California Legislature Advances Senator Arreguín’s Bill to Ensure Healthcare Spaces are Safe Spaces

National

• Trump’s Immigration Actions Are Taking a Toll on Local Economies – Here’s What the Data Says So Far

• Use of federal troops in Los Angeles is unlawful, judge says

• Judge blocks deportation of Guatemalan migrant children as flights were ready to take off

California

• ICE is suddenly showing up in California hospitals. Workers want more guidance on what to do

• Trump’s immigration policy threatens key sectors of California’s economy, long reliant on immigrant workers

• Fresno immigration lawyers are declining some ICE detention cases. Here’s why

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