Immigrant families carry an ‘invisible backpack’ of fear

A licensed clinical social worker and board president of the Coalition for Immigrant Mental Health describes how fear, surveillance, and immigration enforcement reshape daily life—creating an “invisible backpack” of stress that affects children, families, and

Fear has become background noise for many immigrant families across the United States: not just the fear of what might happen at the border. but the fear that enforcement could reach into ordinary routines. When detention or deportation feels like a constant possibility. decisions about where to go. whom to trust. and whether it is safe to seek help start to feel less like choices and more like calculations.

The stress comes with a story policymakers often summarize in terms of public safety. But the Coalition for Immigrant Mental Health board president Aimee Hilado. Ph.D. argues the lived reality looks different—less about safer communities and more about widespread stress. fear. and isolation that spreads well beyond those directly targeted. regardless of immigration status.

To describe what families carry. Hilado points to what many call the “invisible backpack.” It is not a single event. she says. but an accumulation of psychological and emotional weight built over time. The load includes past trauma, ongoing uncertainty, and the daily strain of navigating systems that can feel unwelcoming or harmful. For many people. it stacks up from migration journeys. family separation. exposure to violence. discrimination. policy instability. and the constant need to assess risk in everyday life.

In practice, that heaviness often shows up in ways that others may not immediately see. Hilado describes children sitting in classrooms distracted by the fear that their parents might not be home when they return. Adolescents, she says, may withdraw or struggle to focus as they wrestle with questions of belonging and safety. Adults, meanwhile, make daily decisions through a lens shaped by uncertainty, distrust, and fear.

Over time, sustained stress can affect health—disrupting sleep, straining relationships, and interfering with learning and development, especially for children growing up in these environments.

Hilado also emphasizes that this isn’t only an individual problem. Communities absorb prolonged instability and threat together. The visible signs may include increased isolation, distrust, or an inability to imagine a different future. She describes the consequences as unfolding in real time: no one is wired to function indefinitely under conditions like these.

That is why. in Hilado’s view. mental health has to be part of the conversation—because it is deeply intertwined with the immigrant experience. Many immigrants arrive having already experienced loss, displacement, or violence from home countries or during migration journeys. Without accessible support that is culturally and linguistically responsive, those experiences compound.

Since its inception. the Coalition for Immigrant Mental Health has focused on meeting the mental health needs of vulnerable immigrant communities. including refugees. asylum-seekers. and undocumented individuals. Hilado says the coalition works to address care gaps by training front-line providers. supporting community-based organizations. and creating spaces where people can access help grounded in lived experience. The coalition’s work also aims to reduce stigma by framing distress as an expected human response to sustained adversity rather than a personal weakness.

Even as fear spreads, Hilado points to networks of care that continue quietly holding communities together. Community organizations. advocates. educators. and neighbors keep showing up so people are not carrying the weight alone—offering tangible. emotional. and informational support and building spaces for connection and healing.

Across the country. she describes acts of care that can look small in isolation but add up to something sustaining: neighbors escorting children to school. volunteers delivering groceries. and organizations coordinating rides so families can safely attend critical appointments. She calls these acts of care and resistance evidence of strength—while also underscoring the extraordinary pressures communities are facing. Resilience, she warns, should not be mistaken for the absence of need.

Policies will continue to evolve, and community needs will evolve with them. But Hilado’s message is clear: if the goal is healthy. resilient communities. the conversation can’t start and stop at enforcement debates. It has to begin with what people are carrying—because the “invisible backpack” is not abstract. It is shaping how children learn, how families connect, and how communities function.

“We must recognize the weight immigrant communities are carrying and invest in the conditions that allow people to set the backpack down,” Hilado said.

Aimee Hilado, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical social worker and board president of the Coalition for Immigrant Mental Health. She is also an assistant professor at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work. Policy. and Practice. where her work focuses on migration trauma and its impact on refugee and immigrant families with young children.

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