How Anti-Immigrant Policies Impact Research Among Latinx and Undocumented People Who Use Drugs.

Abstract

Since January 2025, anti-immigrant policies, criminalization, and xenophobic rhetoric have rapidly intensified, threatening the health and well-being of Latinx communities. Under new executive orders, funding and research related to racial health disparities and equity is being scaled back or halted. The negative effects of immigration enforcement on the health of Latinx communities have been well documented. Less is known about how the implementation of these policies and associated anti-immigrant rhetoric impacts researchers' ability to conduct health equity science among vulnerable Latinx communities. The current anti-immigrant political climate is likely to have detrimental effects on health equity research and lead to increases in morbidity and mortality among Latinx people who use drugs (PWUD). This analytic essay draws on data from 4 case studies of research with Latinx PWUD residing in 3 US states. We discuss how anti-immigration policies and xenophobic rhetoric affect the ability to conduct research with Latinx PWUD. We offer strategies to support the continuation of health equity research in the context of an increasingly hostile sociopolitical landscape. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print September 4, 2025:e1-e10. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308234).