June 18, 2025 As arrests of unauthorized immigrants are up nationally and immigration enforcement is increasingly visible in U.S. communities, health-care providers are reporting less busy waiting rooms, patients with concerning symptoms hesitating to show up, and an increase in no-shows. Extensive research demonstrates that fear of heightened enforcement during prior periods has resulted in reduced health-care access and negative impacts to long-term public health and community well-being, as unauthorized immigrant and mixed-status families delay or avoid medical care. “Long-held principles guiding law enforcement practices call for order and due process to be carried out within the context of their broader societal consequences. Such norms are of particular importance in immigration enforcement, given its wider impacts on the health of children and families, as well as workplace and community well-being,” Valerie Lacarte, a senior policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), writes in a short read out today. “So the question then becomes: How can immigration enforcement operations be carried out in ways that produce the least amount of harm to individuals, children in particular?” The analysis suggests reinstating protections, lifted earlier this year, that would keep immigration enforcement operations away from sensitive locations such as health-care facilities, schools, and faith-based institutions—all trusted environments that play a central role in providing individuals with key information. Read the short read, The Health Costs to Children of Stepped-Up U.S. Immigration Enforcement, here: www.migrationpolicy.org/news/health-costs-immigration-enforcement. |
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| The Migration Policy Institute is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank in Washington, D.C. dedicated to analysis of the movement of people worldwide. MPI provides analysis, development and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at the local, national and international levels. For more on MPI, please visit www.migrationpolicy.org. |
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