ICE Tactics, Deportation Fears Limit Access to Health Care for Children of Immigrants: Survey
New survey of 691 health care workers in 30 states highlights preventable health harms affecting both immigrant and U.S. citizen children
[Editor’s Note: Earlier this year, Migrant Clinicians Network partnered with Physicians for Human Rights on this important survey to uncover what our clinical network — including community health workers and outreach workers — has been experiencing in their communities. We asked you about health care seeking behaviors, immigration enforcement at your clinics, what resources you rely on, and more. We are using these answers to guide our work. Here, we share the joint press release between MCN and PHR that we are releasing today in English and Spanish, which summarizes the results relating to the health care needs and access of children in our immigrant and migrant communities. We also include a resources list to assist clinicians in serving their pediatric patients.]
Trump administration immigration enforcement actions have led to health care disruptions for children and adults across the United States. Health care workers report consequences including children presenting at hospital emergency rooms unaccompanied, delayed diagnoses of life-threatening illnesses, and children as young as six presenting with anxiety due to fears of family separation, according to new data from Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and Migrant Clinicians Network (MCN). A survey of 691 health care workers across 30 states who work with immigrant populations, conducted from March to August 2025, spotlights the preventable health impacts for both immigrant and U.S. citizen patients.
The survey finds:
84 percent of surveyed health care workers report significant or moderate decreases in patient visits since January 2025 executive orders on immigration.
26 percent of clinicians report that immigration enforcement has directly affected patient care.
Seven percent reported Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) presence inside of their health care facilities.
Providers report that services affected include Preventive services (43 percent), chronic disease management (36 percent), and mental health care (28 percent).
Cited patient concerns affecting health access included fear of deportation (49 percent) and family separation (39 percent).
27 percent of surveyed health care workers identified fear of benefit enrollment or renewal as a primary barrier preventing patients from accessing care or maintaining coverage.
While the broad and chilling disruption to health care access affects immigrant populations of all ages, health care workers consistently report that children – including U.S. citizens – face particularly acute health impacts.
“We are witnessing the creation of a generation with preventable trauma, delayed diagnoses, foregone treatments, and compromised development,” said Katherine Peeler, MD, pediatrician and PHR’s medical advisor.
“What we are documenting is systemic, orchestrated harm to immigrants, and therefore their children – harm that is entirely preventable. Parents are making impossible choices: declining surgery for their children, delaying emergency care, and refusing specialty referrals because they have calculated that the risks of deportation or family separation exceed the medical necessity.”
“Our clinical network is sounding the alarm: fear is keeping migrant and immigrant children from critical care to stay safe and healthy,” said Laszlo Madaras, MD, MPH, Chief Medical Officer for Migrant Clinicians Network. “Health care is a human right. When fear blocks care for some, it harms all of us.”
Survey responses also reveal five ways how children’s access to health care is being impeded by Trump administration immigration enforcement actions:
1) Children Forced to Navigate Health Care Alone Due to Deportation Fears
Surveyed health care providers report parents are deliberately avoiding hospital settings out of fear of detention.
One Illinois physician reported: “Some children presenting without their parents to the emergency department.” Another physician from Illinois noted: “Children coming to ED by themselves as parents await outside.”
This practice creates cascading problems, as medical histories cannot be obtained from those most familiar with the child’s health, informed consent becomes impossible, children may become distrustful of the medical system if they do not understand the care they are receiving, and follow-up care coordination collapses.
2) Children’s Trauma from Parents’ Detention and Threat of Family Separation
Health care providers report that children as young as six years old are presenting with anxiety, with fear of family separation identified as the primary stressor. One Oregon community health worker observed: “We have minors constantly crying during their well-child checks expressing their fear for themselves and their families.”
A Massachusetts physician described: “Parents of our pediatric patients [have been] detained by ICE, which has led to a great deal of emotional distress in the remaining adult and their children.”
Surveyed health care providers attribute this psychological distress directly to immigration enforcement policies and their chilling effects.
3) Reduced Use of Outdoor Spaces Due to Fear Raises Physical Health Concerns
Providers report observing a concerning pattern: children with restricted physical activity, social isolation, and abnormal weight gain trajectories. The outdoor play essential for healthy child development is being reduced by parents who perceive it as too risky due to the threat of immigration enforcement.
One physician in Massachusetts described: “I have pediatric patients that are flagging in the obese range for weight and when we talk about playing in parks and getting other forms of exercise the parents note that they are not leaving their apartments for fear of encountering ICE. Their children suffer the double trauma of fear of family separation and immigration enforcement as well as lacking a safe place to play and exercise and other healthy outlets for children.”
4) Delayed Diagnoses and Late-Stage Disease Presentations Among Children
Health care providers in the survey report children presenting at later disease stages with preventable complications and delayed diagnoses.
Parents are making what providers describe as impossible choices: seeking care only when legally mandated (such as for school enrollment forms) or only when illness severity becomes life-threatening. Routine immunizations, developmental screenings, and preventive interventions are being sacrificed to this risk calculation.
A California physician reported: “I have had multiple parents decline visits with specialists, including delaying surgery, because of the fear of immigration enforcement in the destination city or on the way there.”
5) The Safety Net as a Trap – New Threats of Surveillance
The pediatric safety net, including Medicaid coverage and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) enrollment, is increasingly being avoided because it is perceived as a trap rather than protection, even when U.S. citizen children are eligible for public benefits. Some parents are making the calculated decision that the risk of engaging with these systems outweighs the benefits of coverage.
One community health worker in North Carolina expressed: “We are increasingly alarmed that the children of immigrants may soon lose access to vital programs like SNAP and Medicaid, not because they are ineligible, but because their parents are being targeted and surveilled when attempting to complete these applications on their behalf.”
Many families are actively avoiding benefit renewal. One Oregon community health worker reported: “Families are scared to renew their Medicaid.”
These harms extend beyond mixed-status families. U.S. citizen children are losing health care coverage due to parents’ fear of deportation and surveillance. As one North Carolina community health worker said: “Patients and families are experiencing increasingly severe persecution which is exacerbating or contributing to all of their health problems and making management of chronic conditions and prevention of disease extremely difficult. This actually affects the citizens and non-citizens, negatively impacting the health of the whole community.”
“In light of these mounting health harms, the Trump administration should end actions that directly or indirectly curtail access to critical health care services for children and families,” said Dr. Peeler of PHR. “This includes codifying the ‘Sensitive Locations’ policy and ceasing all immigration enforcement at health care facilities. The administration should also end ICE data-sharing with Medicaid and align broader U.S. immigration policies and practices with international human rights standards.”
“Health care workers and institutions also have a critical role to play in keeping their patients healthy and safe. Clinicians can protect their patients, colleagues, and themselves through actions that maintain trust, facilitate access to care, and adhere to legal rights and obligations.”
Resources:
Read this press release in Spanish on MCN’s Spanish-language Substack, Cosechando salud con MCN.
Access extensive resources for migrant and immigrant children in Spanish and English – along with dozens more resources organized by audience including clinicians, adults, farmworkers, and more, on Planes Utiles.
Read MCN’s recent article, Expanding the ACEs Framework to Recognize Immigration Enforcement as Childhood Trauma. Also available in Spanish: Expandiendo el marco conceptual de ACE para incluir a la aplicación de las leyes de inmigración como trauma infantil
Watch MCN’s webinar on helping families prepare in the current environment, in English and Spanish. Strengthening Resilience and Action in Immigrant Families: Talking to Children About Current Immigration-Related Challenges
Is a pediatric patient in your community unable to get the specialty care they need? MCN’s PediSCAN – Pediatric Specialty Care Access Network – is a subset of Health Network, assisting in coordination of specialty care for children. Read a case study here to learn how PediSCAN works. Learn about how to enroll in Health Network/PediSCAN here, or reach out to get connected to PediSCAN by emailing hn@migrantclinician.org.
Clinicians, take care of yourself as well. Watch MCN’s recent webinar, Moral Injury in Healthcare: What it is and what to do about it in English or Spanish.
Clinicians are indeed sounding the alarm. This piece confirms what we are hearing on the front lines. Immigrant families and children are being traumatized.