One clinic tracks the heavy toll Trump's immigration crackdown takes on mental health

Mental Health One clinic tracks the heavy toll Trump's immigration crackdown takes on mental health May 17, 20267:00 AM ET By  Rhitu Chatterjee A child cries after his father is detained by federal agents as they left an immigration court hearing at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building on August 26, 2025 in New York City. The Trump administration's immigration crackdown continues nationwide. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images As the Trump administration's immigration crackdown stretches into its second year, researchers and health care workers say that it 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. Immigration More immigrants are being held in detention for over a year. NPR followed one family's ordeal. "When we look at our data during periods of intensified enforcement, our screening data showed a clear rise in distress," says Sophia Pages, a licensed marriage and family therapist and executive director of behavioral health at Zocalo Health, a primary care clinic in Los Angeles that mainly serves Latino families on Medicaid. "Immigration enforcement is functioning as a real time public health stressor in the communities that we serve." Two children draw in coloring books in a safe house in Minneapolis on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. Their mother and grandmother were detained earlier that month by federal immigration agents. Jack Brook/AP hide caption toggle caption Jack Brook/AP All patients at Zocalo get standardized screenings for mental health problems like anxiety and depression. Since the immigration enforcement agents began raiding farms and neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area in 2025, Pages and her colleagues have seen a sharp rise in symptoms. Sponsor Message "More than half of the patients we screened had anxiety that was se...