{"id":177116,"date":"2025-09-29T06:57:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T06:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/177116\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T06:57:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T06:57:07","slug":"panic-attacks-and-anxiety-plague-a-young-immigrant-mother-navigating-around-ice-arrests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/177116\/","title":{"rendered":"Panic attacks and anxiety plague a young immigrant mother navigating around ICE arrests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social media alerted a recent immigrant to Chicago one recent afternoon that federal agents were nearby. The young mother learned they were at a corner she would have to pass to catch her train to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a panic attack,\u201d the woman said in Spanish. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to go to work. In fact, I got there late \u2026 My husband told me, \u2018I\u2019ll walk you to the [CTA] and we\u2019ll see if there\u2019s something around there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The corner was clear by the time they arrived, and she later learned it was only Chicago police. But the woman was deeply shaken. <\/p>\n

She has a pending asylum case<\/a> and fears she could be picked up by federal agents and separated from her husband and their young daughter. The Chicago Sun-Times is not naming her because she has an uncommon first name that could identify her and put her at risk.<\/p>\n

The family is expected in front of an immigration judge in October. She fears what should be a routine court hearing<\/a> could end in their deportation back to Venezuela.<\/p>\n

The woman is now staying off social media and only watches TV news as President Donald Trump\u2019s deportation campaign intensifies<\/a> in the Chicago area. She and her husband continue to do their own errands \u2014 at night when there tends to be less reports of ICE sightings. And when her husband goes to work, delivering food across the city, she frequently checks in with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have any peace,\u201d she says. \u201c… I\u2019m thinking of him, I\u2019m thinking of my daughter and I\u2019m thinking of all the scenarios that could happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mental health experts say this kind of fear can have ripple effects, disrupting sleep and leading to changes in a person\u2019s mood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat folks are living through truly is a trauma \u2014 this threat of forcible separation from attachment figures and caregivers,\u201d said Rebecca Ford-Paz, a child psychologist based in Chicago who is part of the Coalition for Immigrant Mental Health.<\/p>\n

The Venezuelan woman worries most about her daughter, especially if she and her husband were to be detained while the girl is at school. As her mom talks, the young girl lays on a bed in the family\u2019s studio apartment, singing softly along to YouTube videos.<\/p>\n

Children can develop stomach aches or headaches when facing this kind of anxiety. Living with constant threat can harm their development, Ford-Paz says. They may have trouble paying attention, struggle making decisions and may have difficulty relaxing.<\/p>\n

So far, the woman doesn\u2019t see any changes in her daughter\u2019s mood or behavior. But she knows the young girl is starting to pick up on the family\u2019s precarious situation. The girl has asked her mom if \u201cimmigration\u201d is the reason why they can\u2019t go to the park.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes she does cry,\u201d the woman says. \u201cShe tells me she wants to return to her country, that she misses her family.\u201d<\/p>\n

The woman took part in a mental health support group for migrants when she was living at a shelter in Chicago. She keeps in touch with some women she met, but she says their community is small.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like it if this country gave me the opportunity to remain here peacefully, to work in a way that helps the country\u2019s economic growth,\u201d the woman says.<\/p>\n

For now, she\u2019s trying to figure out how the family can exercise since they spend so much time indoors. And she continues going to work even when she feels scared.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith faith in God that nothing will happen,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Social media alerted a recent immigrant to Chicago one recent afternoon that federal agents were nearby. The young…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394],"class_list":{"0":"post-177116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}