“Too much, too soon, too fast” — psychologists warn that this is a recipe for trauma, demonstrating the severity of the mental health impacts of ICE raids. And over the past six months, no city nationwide has been battered in such a way like Los Angeles.

The year began, as Joan Didion once wrote, with “the city on fire, just as we had always known it would be.” Before Angelenos could recover from the hurricane-strength winds that blanketed L.A. in flames, killing more than two dozen people and destroying some 15,000 structures, new fears surfaced — whispers of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stalking parking lots, circling schools and detaining immigrants across L.A. County.

First came the rumors: ICE is at the Target in Alhambra. They’re parked near a high school in South L.A. Then came the confirmations — federal agents on church grounds, mass raids at Home Depot locations, protests met with militarized force. The National Guard’s presence downtown, in a city already prone to what Didion called “apocalyptic notions,” made it feel like Los Angeles was under siege.

But for immigrant communities, the siege isn’t just a feeling — it’s reality, underscoring the mental health impacts of ICE raids. Families have grappled with disappearances, deportations and the constant fear of being hunted. When Sen. Alex Padilla — a Democrat and the son of Mexican immigrants, was tackled during a Department of Homeland Security briefing Thursday — they reflexively flinched.

Psychologist Lisette Sanchez understands this trauma intimately. Raised by working-class immigrants in Southern California, she’s spent this tumultuous year treating an increasingly anxious, bicultural clientele from her Long Beach practice. She helps first-generation Americans and others who’ve been told, both overtly and covertly, they don’t belong — and experience the exhaustion, silencing and self-doubt that accompanies such alienation.

The 19th spoke with Sanchez about pressing forward in an unforgiving year, healing intergenerational trauma and how immigrant communities can weather a reactionary political climate.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Nadra Nittle: Given the recent immigration raids across Greater Los Angeles and the Trump administration’s militarized response to them, Southern California has been on edge. What are immigrant communities, in particular, experiencing right now?

Lisette Sanchez: The recent ICE activity in Los Angeles has left many in our immigrant communities feeling a renewed sense of fear, grief and hypervigilance. This impacts people beyond those directly targeted. These raids often reactivate intergenerational trauma for families who have experienced displacement or detention in the past.

Read the full article about the mental health impacts of ICE raids by Nadra Nittle at The 19th.