LOS ANGELES — Zocalo Health, a primary care clinic in Los Angeles that mainly serves Latino families on Medicaid, reported a rise in anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts among its patients during periods of intensified immigration enforcement in 2025. The clinic, which screens all patients for those conditions, found that more than half had anxiety severe enough to interfere with daily life, nearly three quarters were experiencing depression, and nearly one in eight reported struggling with thoughts of suicide.

The rate of suicidal ideation among Zocalo Health patients is more than double the rate in the general population. The screening data were collected as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted raids on farms and neighborhoods in and around Los Angeles.

"When we look at our data during periods of intensified enforcement, our screening data showed a clear rise in distress," said Sophia Pages, a licensed marriage and family therapist and executive director of behavioral health at the clinic. "Immigration enforcement is functioning as a real time public health stressor in the communities that we serve."

Pages described what she observed among patients during the enforcement period. "What seemed to sit underneath it for many patients was this profound sense of helplessness because no matter how careful they were, by changing their routines, or staying home more, they felt like they can't protect themselves or their families," she said. "And that loss of control was deeply destabilizing and can intensify depression, trauma-related distress and suicidal thinking."

Zocalo Health employs community health workers to connect individuals to care and address patients' needs as families have gone into hiding with increasing immigration enforcement. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that the Trump administration's immigration crackdown has become a toxic stress for children likely to leave a lasting impact on their developmental, physical and mental health.

Ariana Hoet, a pediatric psychologist at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, described the strain on Latino families. "Latino children often have higher rates of things like depression, anxiety, because of all the stresses on families to adapt to a new culture, language and environment while still struggling with past traumas," she said. "If you're a mixed documentation family, most children are very aware of that and live in that fear of what can happen to my parents."

Esperanza, a 29-year-old mother of two boys who lives in King City, California, said her 11-year-old son is scared of her going out alone because he fears immigration agents might detain her. The boy told her, "Well, if they get both of us, then at least we'll be together."