A report by a San Jose-based university and nonprofit finds that immigrant communities in California are facing barriers to secure housing, health care, and other services amid the federal administration’s crackdown on immigrant communities.  

The report is jointly authored by the San Jose State University Human Rights Institute and the Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN). 

The report drew on a survey of 301 individuals and focus group discussions involving 22 participants to highlight the systemic inequities that immigrant communities face in accessing essential services in the state. 

The executive summary of the report states, “Data indicated that current immigration enforcement and sociopolitical conditions create conditions of fear, exclusion, and structural inequality that affect not only undocumented individuals but all immigrant community members regardless of legal status.” 

It goes on to say, “these findings align with prior research indicating that restrictive immigration policies discourage the use of public services and undermine well-being.” 

Navigating long wait times, complex application procedures, and restrictive eligibility criteria are some of the hurdles that immigrants face when trying to access services like housing and health care, the report finds.  

“This is a collective crisis and thus our collective responsibility as a society.”  

Jamie Barton, a researcher and co-author of the report

The authors also highlight a budding mental health crisis born out of a fear of immigration enforcement.  

The report quotes participants from focused group discussions who speak to the atmosphere of anxiety and the chilling effect it has on immigrants’ day-to-day activities.  

“The people are not sending their children to school,” said one of the participants, “even if ICE’s presence is not as big in San Jose, we haven’t felt it that much here, people are still… they feel the fear, they feel the fear and this uneasiness, right? Especially moms.” 

“How is it possible that incarcerated people are treated better than those of us in detention centers?” said another participant. “And personally, I’m scared. Because what if they take you to one of these places, you get sick, and then they don’t treat you?” 

“The injustices being inflicted on these communities are in no way contained to the bounds of their families and neighborhoods,” said Jamie Barton, a research assistant at the SJSU Human Rights Institute and one of the authors. “This is a collective crisis and thus our collective responsibility as a society.”