The Oregon Psychological Association (OPA) advocates for legislation that protects the welfare, dignity, and legal rights of immigrant populations through ensuring safe and secure access to healthcare, education, and other publicly available services as allowed by Oregon statutes. We support legislation which:

• Considers the physical and psychological welfare, privacy, and human dignity of immigrants and their families.
• Outlines psychologists’ and other healthcare providers’ roles in protecting safe access to healthcare, education, and other publicly available services.
• Supports psychologists and other healthcare providers to operate in a manner that is ethical, compliant with state and federal legislation, protective of immigrants’ Due Process rights, and is trauma-informed.

The APA Ethics Code directs psychologists to respect and protect civil and human rights while ensuring patient welfare and avoiding harm (APA, 2017; Beneficence and Nonmaleficence, Justice, Respect for People’s Rights and Dignity, 3.04 Avoiding Harm). Unrestricted immigration enforcement access in healthcare, education, and other public spaces directly impact emotional well-being, academic opportunity, and physical safety of immigrants and their families (APA, 2025; American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), 2025). Recent immigration enforcement policies and actions have instilled fear and contributed to loss of life for both citizens and immigrant communities alike (Hellman, 2026).

Immigrants bring many strengths to the economy as well as the culture of their host communities (Bansak, Simpson, & Zavodny, 2021, as cited in APA, 2025).

Other healthcare organizations, such as Physicians for Human Rights (PHR; Physicians for Human Rights, 2025) have noted harmful effects of immigration enforcement actions and related policies, including delayed diagnosis and care of life-threatening illness, heightened anxiety and distress, and reduced attendance at visits for chronic health concerns and mental health care. These effects are especially deleterious for children. Pediatric populations are particularly impacted as a result immigration enforcement actions and policies that instill realistic fear of detainment, parent separation, and serious bodily harm–this significantly disrupts safe and secure access to healthcare, public assistance programs, educational opportunity, and outdoor recreational spaces (PHR, 2025; Cohodes et al., 2021; APA, 2024).

We strongly urge this legislative body to protect the welfare and human dignity of immigrant populations and their safe access to healthcare, education, public assistance programs, and community spaces. We urge this legislative body to offer legislation regarding immigration enforcement to support healthcare providers and entities, schools, and other public services and programs in establishing policies that protect the rights, dignity, and welfare of immigrant populations to the fullest extent of the law.

References

American Academy of Pediatrics. (2025, November). AAP Leaders: Children are bearing consequences of immigration enforcement actions. Retrieved from https://publications.aap.org/aapnews/news/33814/AAP-leaders-Children-are-bearing-consequences-of

American Psychological Association. (2024, August). Psychological Science and Immigration Today. APA Task Force on Immigration and Health. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/psychological-science-immigration-today.pdf

American Psychological Association. (2025, March). What Psychological Science Says about Immigration and Immigrant Health. Retrieved from: https://d3dkdvqff0zqx.cloudfront.net/groups/apaadvocacy/attachments/Advocacy-Factsheet-Immigration_V4.pdf

American Psychological Association. (2017). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/.

Bansak, C., Simpson, N., Zavodny, M. (2021). The economics of immigration (2nd ed.). Routledge.

Cohodes, E. M., Kribakaran, S., Odriozola, P., Bakirci, S., McCauley, S., Hodges, H. R., Sisk, L. M., Zacharek, S. J., & Gee, D. G. (2021). Migration-related trauma and mental health among migrant children emigrating from Mexico and Central America to the United States: Effects on developmental neurobiology and implications for policy. Developmental Psychobiology, 63(6). https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.22158

Hellman, M. (2026, January 28). Eight people have died in dealings with ICE so far in 2026. These are their stories. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/28/deaths-ice-2026-

Physicians for Human Rights. (2025, November). ICE Tactics and Deportation Fears Limit Access to Healthcare for Children of Immigrants: Survey. Retrieved from

https://phr.org/news/ice-tactics-and-deportation-fears-limit-access-to-health-care-for-children-of-immigrants-survey/