In 2022, 22.8% of the U.S. population were diagnosed with a mental illness, and 50% received treatment.1 Almost 20% of Latinos received a diagnosis of any mental illness.1 Of those, 44% got treatment. Such statistics are not comprehensive and rely on non-institutionalized individuals, underestimating the burden of psychosocial stress due to immigration-related fears, enforcement, and detentions. In the US, immigration regulations shape social institutions and determine immigrants' access to rights and privileges, creating cumulative disadvantages for Latinos, who accounted for 90% of all removals in 2022. Widespread fear of deportation among Latinos stands at 42%, the highest of any racial/ethnic group, affecting both immigrants and U.S.-born Latinos. Detained people face significant mental health challenges, with up to 37% experiencing severe mental illness and 59% showing PTSD symptoms. Additionally, discrimination and xenophobia contribute to severe mental illness, as Latino mental health patients who face discrimination are 1.72 times more likely to have suicidal thoughts. Racialized legal status emerges from ostensibly race-neutral immigration laws that disproportionately impact Latinos, creating a social hierarchy based on an individual’s legal status, race, and ethnicity. There are inadequate measurement tools available for racial legal status and empirical assessments regarding the exclusion experienced by those on the lower tiers of the hierarchy.
The purpose of this work is to create an intersectional discrimination framework to characterize how racialized legal status excludes people from civic life, economic mobility, and access to essential services. We will use this framework to develop a tool to measure its impact on psychological distress and quantify intersectional inequities attributed to racialized legal status.
Our study addresses crucial gaps in understanding the effect of exclusion due to racialized legal status in broader Latino populations and the need for structural frameworks to explain health disparities. Utilizing CHIS data, our study will broaden the understanding of how and to what extent Latinos are excluded, offering a comprehensive perspective on the mental health impacts of racialized legal status. By examining the intricacies of legal status categories and their intersections with race and ethnicity, we aim to offer insights into the multifaceted experiences of Latino immigrants.
This research will enhance the scholarship pertaining to immigration health by offering a novel measurement tool designed to quantify exclusion arising from racialized legal status, with potential application of this construct and measurement technique in diverse settings and countries confronting immigration health challenges. This study aims to expose institutional barriers harming mental health, inform interventions to improve access to services, create supportive environments and programs, and advocate for policy reforms for the Latino community.