Disrupting Immigrant and Pediatric Care

In June 2025, there were 51.9 million immigrants living in the U.S. (https://tinyurl.com/2zejpytd). Factor in the U.S.- born children of these immigrants, and that number doubles. Immigrant-led families represent a major sector of today’s patient population, and the ENT field is no exception. Unfortunately, over the past year, otolaryngologists and other clinicians have had a front-row seat to the unfolding impact of current immigration policy on immigrant-led families when it comes to accessing and maintaining much-needed otolaryngological healthcare.

Some physician leaders are understandably reluctant to comment officially on this topic for fear of attracting unwanted attention that conceivably could affect funding and hurt their organizations and patients further. Off the record, however, many acknowledge the alarming effects of current policy on their patients, especially pediatric patients. Emerging data from a national survey of 691 healthcare workers across 30 states validate those concerns (https://tinyurl.com/38c6vhwm). Results of the survey, conducted March through August 2025 by the Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Migrant Clinicians Network (MCN), paint a disturbing picture of decreased patient visits, dwindling benefit enrollments, health-threatening diagnosis delays, inadequate preventive healthcare and chronic disease management, and an increased need for mental healthcare to cope with the current climate.

Policy Stokes Fear, Thwarts Care

Immigration policy changes in the past year have been swift and dramatic. In July 2025, the U.S. Senate approved a $170 billion budget reconciliation measure that, among other things, raised Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention funding by 265%, enabling the detention of at least 116,000 people daily (https://tinyurl.com/3893xxea). A January 2026 report from the American Immigration Council (AIC) noted that the number of people held in ICE detention on any given day increased by more than 75% in just one year (https://tinyurl.com/5xfa568a).

Per the AIC report, this is in part due to the expansion of so-called “at large” arrests, an operation that many Americans have watched play out on their TV and mobile device screens. Under new policy enforcement practices, areas once considered too sensitive for immigration enforcement activity, such as schools and hospitals, now appear to be fair game. Among immigrant families, the primary response to this new reality is fear and avoidance. Even though most immigrant children are in fact U.S.-born (https://tinyurl.com/n476vhu2) and, as such—with rare exception—designated U.S. citizens, this does not eliminate the possibility of enforced detainment and/ or separation during a simple visit to the pediatrician.