Statement Regarding U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Actions
The Southern California Psychiatric Society (SCPS), representing more than 1,000 psychiatrists across Southern California, affirms that psychiatric treatment must be delivered in an environment where patients can seek care and engage in treatment without fear of harm, surveillance, intimidation or retaliation.
The presence or actions of U.S. DHS agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) in or near health care settings undermines patient safety, erodes trust in the clinician-patient relationship, and interferes with ethical medical practice. This stance aligns with statements by the American Medical Association (AMA), the California Medical Association (CMA), the American College of Physicians (ACP), and other medical organizations.
SCPS is also deeply concerned by reports that ICE has accessed or sought access to Medicaid and other public benefits data for enforcement purposes. The use of patient information in immigration enforcement threatens patient confidentiality and further deters individuals and families from seeking essential medical and mental health services, compounding untreated illness and increasing preventable crises. Mental healthcare is especially vulnerable to the looming threat of ICE detainment and deportation. When patients fear that seeking care could expose them or their loved ones to immigration enforcement, they delay or avoid treatment, disengage from therapeutic care, decline crisis services, and withhold clinically relevant information.
Psychiatrists across Southern California are experiencing and witnessing the significant and preventable mental health consequences of immigration enforcement practices. Fear of detention, deportation, or family separation acts as a chronic psychological stressor, contributing to anxiety, depression, trauma-related symptoms, sleep disturbance, isolation from community support, and worsening of serious mental illness. Reports of violent encounters involving federal immigration agents, including recent fatal and non fatal shootings, intensify fear, psychological distress, and community-wide trauma. These harms extend beyond individual patients to families and communities, with children particularly vulnerable to the destabilizing effects of fear, uncertainty, and parental separation.
SCPS unequivocally condemns the use of excessive or militarized force as a mechanism to limit, control, or intimidate individuals and communities, including actions that restrict people’s ability to safely exist in public spaces or to lawfully exercise their First Amendment rights. The deployment of violence, threats of force, or coercive tactics in civilian settings inflicts profound psychological harm, erodes public trust in institutions, and undermines the foundations of a free and democratic society. Such practices disproportionately harm marginalized communities and create pervasive fear that interferes with civic participation, school attendance, community cohesion, and access to essential services, including health care.
The Southern California Psychiatric Society calls on policymakers, government agencies, and health system leaders to protect health care settings and patient data, to refrain from enforcement practices that endanger public health, and to ensure access to medical and mental health care regardless of immigration status. We remain committed to prioritizing patient safety, confidentiality, and ethical psychiatric care for all members of our communities.