The Public Health Implications of ICE

Since January 2025, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has conducted an unprecedented number of workplace and community raids, targeting undocumented and documented immigrants, and now U.S. citizens, including Renee Good and Alex Pretti. These activities threaten the pillars of public health in the U.S. by facilitating disease transmission, deterring people from seeking medical care, and disrupting schools.

Impacts to health care

Widespread fear of ICE has caused many people who are afraid to leave their houses to skip pediatric primary care (including vaccinations), which can lead to unchecked progression of chronic diseases. Many are also not seeking urgent care (including for gunshot wounds) and other doctor appointments. Residents of Minneapolis are making potentially life-altering decisions to forego prenatal and other primary care.

This troubling trend threatens the health of underserved children. In one California community, 30% of parents canceled or did not show for their child’s appointments after ICE raids began in January 2025. Prior research found that ICE raids are associated with significantly lower birthweight among infants born to immigrant mothers compared to non-immigrant mothers. Low birth weight increases risks for developmental and intellectual delays, metabolic syndrome, and several other negative health outcomes. This past year of continual ICE activity has likely led to a generation of children who will experience preventable health concerns over the course of their lives.

Detention presents a staggering threat to health

In 2025, detainees reported experiencing exposure to poor sanitation, including a lack of toilets and showers, and poor ventilation. All are risk factors for communicable disease spread. Carceral facilities create the conditions for diseases to spread quickly among the detained population. They are also known to be “institutional amplifiers.” That is, infectious outbreaks may spread to facility workers, increasing the risk of spread to the outer community. We saw this effect during COVID-19 when prisons had increased rates of COVID-19, and outbreaks may occur again. Concerns about measles outbreaks in Texas and Arizona have prompted quarantines just this month. Worse still, data shows diseases such as influenza, varicella, and mumps readily spread in ICE detention facilities.

Since the creation of ICE in 2003, public health research has shown that its activities lead to widespread harm, not only to the hundreds of thousands of people they arrest, but to entire communities.

ICE detention facilities also pose health risks from exposure to extreme temperatures. Extreme heat poses many health risks and can be especially dangerous for people with cardiovascular disease or diabetes, leading to increased risk for death. A Washington Post analysis found that on average, prisons in the U.S. experience 18 days of dangerous heat per year, while ICE facilities experience 29. Reports from detainees and families of detainees in Alligator Alcatraz include sweltering heat and humidity, allowing mosquitoes and other pest populations to rise and creating another layer of increased risk of disease spread.

An even darker picture emerges with reports of unmet medical needs, such as the absence of access to cancer treatment and care for other life-threatening diseases. A study released in 2025 found that the majority of interviewed ICE detainees from 23 states reported poor health and difficulty accessing medical services during detention. A 2025 U.S. Senate investigation found multiple reports of detainees being denied insulin and/or being left without access to medical care for days. Other reports outline the lack of prenatal health care and lack of mental health care, especially among youth.

Impacts to education

Fear of ICE raids has also destabilized communities nationwide by keeping children from attending school. In Chelsea, Massachusetts, where 45% of residents are immigrants, hundreds of students have left the school district, leading to a potential loss of $5.7 million for Chelsea schools. Numerous studies have found that immigration arrests are harmful to staying in school, remaining on their grade track, and test scores. One study found that U.S. children with a deported parent were more likely to have worse academic outcomes (missed parent-teacher conferences, school absences, and no expectation for the child to complete college). Such impacts affect entire school districts and require more specialized educators to address these gaps. Researchers will need years to uncover the unequal distribution of educational impacts from COVID-19. While the true impacts of ICE activity in the past year will take time to analyze, the repercussions on children’s well-being are on track to follow similar patterns.

Abolishing ICE is not radical

In the field of public health, we are trained to protect the health and well-being of entire populations. Since the creation of ICE in 2003, public health research has shown that its activities lead to widespread harm, not only to the hundreds of thousands of people they arrest, but to entire communities. As solution-oriented scientists, we can only conclude that abolishing ICE would alleviate the extreme and persistent health harms that immigrants across the country currently face.

The views expressed here are the authors’ own and do not necessarily represent the views of Public Health Post or Boston University School of Public Health.