Defend Health Care. Defend Families.

In recent months, we’ve heard deeply disturbing reports from communities across the country where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids are disrupting essential health services and threatening the well-being of entire communities. 

In Massachusetts, community health workers are struggling to reach patients, many of whom are too afraid to respond to outreach or attend scheduled visits. In Florida, anxiety, trauma, and stress-related illness are spiking as families brace for what’s next. And in New Jersey, food distribution centers reported a 50% drop in attendance in the week following a major ICE operation. These aren’t isolated incidents—they’re part of a broader strategy of criminalizing immigration and sowing fear. These actions threaten public health, forcing people to live in fear of detention and deportation and making it harder for them to access care, education, housing, and other vital services. The result is a deepening of existing health and social inequities. 

Unfortunately, things could soon get worse. The Senate is debating legislation that would pour an additional $150 billion into the same immigration enforcement agencies responsible for these raids and deportations—agencies that are devastating communities and separating families across the country. To fund this massive expansion of immigration enforcement—and to help pay for tax cuts for the wealthy—the bill proposes deep cuts to Medicaid, a program millions of families rely on for essential health services.  

Anti-immigrant policies strip funding from the very services—health care, education, housing—that communities depend on. As partners in the fight for health equity and human rights, we need to apply public pressure now more than ever.