As the Trump administration makes immigration a policy focus, Latino students in Richmond are experiencing increased anxiety around potential family separation or deportation, leading to increased stress, depression and academic struggles, experts say.
At Huguenot High School, where nearly 40% of the student body is Latino, students have access to a unique resource not available at all Richmond Public Schools: a bilingual therapist.
Lissette Coreas, Huguenot’s in-school clinician with ChildSavers, said students need a safe space to share their fears and feel empowered.
“Having to go on every single day, coming to school, knowing that you have something that drastic going on at home, it shifts their focus from school to that stressor in their life,” Coreas said. “It's not something that they're going to get over from one day to the next. It’s a process.”
The estimated number of immigrants without permanent legal status living in the United States is 11 million — about 850,000 of whom are children under the age of 18, according to Pew Research Center. The organization estimates that 4.4 million children under the age of 18 live in mixed-status households — where some members lack legal status and others are U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
Coreas said that students are filled with questions about an uncertain future: “‘What happens if I get sent back? What will my life look like? Is this even worth it? Should I even come to school? Should I even try hard anymore?”’
While President Donald Trump's administration has cleared the way for immigration enforcement within schools, RPS recently passed policies in an attempt to protect its students.
Among Latino students, Coreas said the challenges that arise the most are: “anxiety, a lot of depression, trauma that they've experienced within early childhood or just life stressors that are going on — whether it's at home, whether it's here, at school or both.”
Coreas said she sees four to six students a day for in-school therapy services. Students are referred to her by RPS staff or parents who directly call ChildSavers, as Latino families become more comfortable with accessing mental health services.
Coreas works alongside a part-time clinician employed by ChildSavers at Huguenot H.S. For the foreseeable future, Coreas anticipates having a waitlist.
Across the district, ChildSavers' RPS school-based team is made up of 13 full-time clinicians, four supervising clinicians and one part-time clinician. Out of this staff, only three of the clinicians — including Coreas — and one of the supervisors are bilingual. The school district serves approximately 22,000 students, according to its website.
“If there aren't spaces for processing emotions, it's going to be like a volcano [erupting],” said Lorena Suárez-Cabrera, a community-based psychologist who leads an after-school program at Huguenot high school.
Suárez-Cabrera said the intense stress of the current situation will have negative consequences on the mental health of young people for years to come.
“In the situations that the children are living in due to the lack of documents, instability at home, all this fear that is starting and will increase in the following years. All these emotions cannot be hidden,” Suárez-Cabrera said. “They will come out in inappropriate ways, through aggression, suicidal ideation, depression, self-destructive behaviors.”
Suárez-Cabrera leads the “Youth Identity and Leadership” after-school program, which meets once a week and is funded by a grant.
“I feel that this program gives the students a protected space where they can, according to the sessions, process trauma, learn healthy coping skills, [and] learn how to communicate,” she said.
Suárez-Cabrera said living in fear of deportation or with the uncertainty of immigration policies is causing flight or fight mode in students.
“[They] are alert because there is a risk situation in terms of, ‘My safety at home, I could lose my mother again,’” Suárez-Cabrera said. “Additionally, they have already had a difficult time adjusting to a new country.”
All this energy, she said, at the end of the day creates fatigue at a time when young people need more energy to grow and learn.
“If they are calm, if their heart is, if they feel safe, they can learn. If not, they will be alert, feeling that they will be in a threatening situation all the time,” Suárez-Cabrera said. “And for parents and for society, that is a very big challenge.”
