This holiday season, many immigrant families are staying home — not by choice, but out of fear. As immigration enforcement ramps up, health experts warn the isolation it’s causing could have lasting consequences.
UC San Diego psychiatrist Dr. Shawn Singh Sidhu compares the moment to another public health crisis.
"We've seen how much COVID has impacted kids and families. Now, imagine another COVID, if you will, for certain populations that lasts four years."
A new survey from KFF and The New York Times shows that about 41% of immigrants say they worry that they or someone in their family could be detained or deported, up from 26% just two years ago.
Sidhu said fear is cutting people off from the very things that help them cope.
"So when people are feeling so scared that they can't go out, they can't spend time with people that they care about, they can't go to work, they can't go to school — all of that identity and that resilience gets stripped away."
The consequences are already showing up, Sidhu said.
"We are living in truly unprecedented times, times in which people really do feel like they're not able to leave their home."
He warned the impact could last well beyond the holidays.
"The damage from the first pandemic really is something that we're still struggling to overcome and will continue to for several years. I don't think it's an overstatement to say that what some of these families are going through in the next four years may end up having really lifelong implications for them."
For now, he said even small acts of connection matter, especially in a season meant for gathering.
"This holiday season, not to see them as different or other or less human than we are, but to open our hearts, open our communities, open our homes,” he said. “So that people can feel like they actually are able to celebrate this and be a part of our community and feel welcome.”
