Naikiry, a 20-year-old community college student and full-time worker, knows first-hand the trauma that can be caused when a Latinx family falls apart as it moves the U.S.

Her family began to unravel when they emigrated from the Dominican to the U.S. in 2015 and were forced to leave behind her mother, who has yet to join them here. The separation, along with the shock of arriving in a new country, caused Naikiry’s family to fall into depression, loneliness, and anxiety. Her father became addicted to alcohol and abusive.

“He was so aggressive he almost choked me. I would go to sleep scared he might kill me,” she recalls.
At 18, she was kicked out found herself homeless and on her own. Now she’s the family’s financial provider.

Alex, who also did not want his last name in print, similarly, suffers from the distance that his move to the U.S. has brought between him and his family. As an immigrant originally from Venezuela, he has to be constantly on guard as he faces language barriers in his educational and work life; even the smallest paperwork error can endanger his status in the U.S. All of this has exacted a mental and physical toll on Alex.

Naikiry’s and Alex’s stories are shared by many Latinx immigrant youths in the U.S. But they often face another, pervasive threat: Anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies. Prominent politicians, both on the right and left, often embrace and espouse such sentiments. While former President Donald Trump is known to call various immigrant groups names – accusing immigrants of “poisoning the blood” of the country and coming from “shit hole countries” – he’s not alone in using that kind of language that’s dominated political debates for years, and will surely come up in the November elections. Democratic Congressman Thomas Suozzi of New York, in pushing for tougher border security legislation, recently argued that, “immigration is a problem.”

Even though Naikiry and Alex are both in U.S. legally, they said that hearing politicians disparage immigrants and push strict measures against immigration, makes them feel in-secure about living here.
Alex said he fears getting deported and Naikiry said that hearing anti-immigrant rhetoric makes her “feel really bad. I feel discriminated against.”

Just how damaging is this type of language to those very targets of the rhetoric – to the immigrants and the refugees, themselves? A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in May 2024 sheds some light on the matter. The study establishes a link between the wider political climate and the mental health of immigrants, affirming that rising anti-immigrant rhetoric in the U.S. has led to increased mental health issues for Latinx adolescents.

“The study is important because it demonstrates the impacts of restrictive, anti-immigrant U.S. immigration policies in the daily lives of immigrant families,” said Elizabeth Vaquera, one of the study’s researchers. “Policymakers often describe immigration as a threat or danger with a focus largely on the U.S.-Mexico border without realizing the consequences of that type of rhetoric and policy approach on the millions of immigrants deeply rooted here in the U.S.”

The stress that these immigrants feel has been especially pronounced following the 2016 presidential election, found the study, titled “US Immigration Policy Stressors and Latinx Youth Mental Health.” At that time, Mexican-origin adolescents have reported worrying about threats such as family separation, and evidence has tied anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions to “greater mental health symptoms of Latinx adolescents,” according to the study.

Amid measures and language that target immigrants, Latinx communities find themselves exposed to the threat of deportations, difficulties in obtaining education and employment, and re-duced access to medical care. Together, this immigrant-hostile language and policy heightens the vulnerability of the historically marginalized Latinx population in the U.S., especially through the mental health of youths.
The authors of the study draw from data of Latinx mothers and kids, obtained in two-year intervals between 2018 and 2022, to assess the change in mental health between early and late adolescence. In looking at the immigration-related stressors that harm family relationships, they considered topics such mothers’ worries such as about a lack of job opportunities, behavior modification (like avoiding medical care), and any past-year detention or deportation of a family member. The findings showed that increased levels in all three factors yielded corresponding increases in parent-child conflict and decreases in parental support. This, in turn, is linked to future mental health symptoms in adolescents – including an increase in suicidal thoughts. The conclusions also reveal that decline in parental support is particularly devastating for adolescent girls, with a significant connection between lack of parental support and mental health issues in Latinx girls.

The study adds to other relevant research conducted in recent years that focus on the vulnerability of Latinx families nationally in which immigration is more sensitive and contentious. A related study in the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology earlier this year considers the role of the Covid-19 pandemic in exacerbating stressors — through both hostile sentiment and policy — for Latinx families. Another published in the American Academy of Pediat-rics last year examines the relationship between state laws unfriendly to immigrants and the physical and mental health of Latinx youth, concluding that Latinx children living under such legislation are more likely to suffer from poor physical and mental health.

As research solidifies the connection between anti-immigrant sentiment and immigrants’ mental health, calls for countermeasures have also increased. The JAMA study highlights the need for educational structures, health institutions, and policymakers to take action. School instructors should take advantage of their proximity to Latinx youths to offer them health support and educational opportunities. Hospitals can do their part by rolling out culturally-inclusive health services, especially given that some immigrant communities still experience mental health stigma. Finally, policymakers need to recognize the vulnerability of Latinx immigrants and take steps to mitigate the harmful consequences of anti-immigrant laws.

As Kathleen Roche, another one of the authors of the study, put it: “We have a youth mental health crisis. This crisis is elevated for Latino youth, and these kids are primarily U.S. citizens.”

But the rhetoric and policies are likely to hit many other immigrant groups, as well.

“When we talk about immigrants, while my research largely focuses on the Latinx community,” Vaquera told the Sampan, “we need to have a more expansive contribution about other immigrant groups, too, that are often excluded from policy discussions and debates.”