Challenges to Addressing Mental Health Repercussions of Large-Scale Immigration Worksite Raids in the Rural United States

Immigration worksite raids-in which dozens to hundreds of individuals are detained-often target food processing plants or other warehouse-based operations, primary sources of employment for immigrants in rural communities. Drawing on interviews with 77 adults who provided support following six worksite raids, we describe three challenges to identifying resultant mental health impacts: 1) amid poverty and family disappearance, mental health is not the priority; 2) untrained practitioners misidentify signs of declining mental health; and 3) mental health care is linguistically limited, expensive, and inaccessible to working families. We end by discussing how practitioners and advocates can address these challenges.