In this brief, we use data from the Urban Institute’s Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey (WBNS) to assess disruptions to immigrant families’ activities and safety net program participation because of immigration-related concerns.
We find that in 2025, a year when communities across the US experienced intensifying immigration enforcement actions, immigrant families were not participating in their communities, accessing essential services, and avoiding safety net programs because of immigration concerns.
Why This Matters
Immigrant families’ disengagement from public life risks reducing the vibrancy of communities, undermining local economies, and jeopardizing access to public programs and services critical to the health and well-being of all members of immigrant families, including US citizens and children.
Key Takeaways
- Almost 1 in 5 immigrant families did not engage in activities essential to well-being because of immigration concerns (18 percent). These included activities that could be essential to their ability to earn income, such as not going to work (9 percent) and not driving a car (11 percent); not visiting health care settings (8 percent); and not participating in religious services or community events (9 percent). Mixed-status families reported higher rates of disengagement from activities compared to families without undocumented members.
- Mixed-status families were most worried about engaging in essential activities, but adults in families without undocumented members also reported worries. For instance, mixed-status families were over twice as likely as those in immigrant families made up entirely of US citizens to report worrying a lot or some about visiting a doctor’s office, clinic, or hospital (29 percent versus 10 percent); going to work (38 percent versus 8 percent); sending children to school, child care, or after-school activities (37 percent versus 11 percent); and talking to police (38 versus 10 percent).
- Immigrant families avoided safety net programs because of green card or data sharing concerns. About 12 percent of adults in immigrant families avoided safety net programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program because of worry that it would disqualify them or a family member from obtaining a green card. Almost 1 in 10 (9 percent) reported their family avoided safety net programs out of concern that personal information would be shared with immigration authorities.
Notes: ICE = US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The sample for the figure is adults in immigrant families ages 18 and older. Estimates for the measure “sending children to school, child care, or after-school activities” are limited to immigrant families with children under 19. The measure of local ICE activity is self-reported and reflects respondents’ awareness of any type of local immigration enforcement activities.
*/**/*** Estimate differs significantly from adults who reported local ICE activity at the 0.10/0.05/0.01 level, using two-tailed tests.
How We Did It
This analysis draws on data from the December 2025 round of the WBNS, a nationally representative, annual survey of adults that monitors individual and family well-being in the context of a changing safety net.
More than 7,500 adults ages 18 to 64 participated in each survey round since 2017, the first year the WBNS was fielded. In 2025, the sample was expanded to include 2,500 adults ages 65 and older, for a total sample size of more than 10,000 participants. For this analysis, we focus on the 2,234 adults in immigrant families, in which one or more people living in the household were born outside the US.
