Abstract: “I'm Feeling Fear for Myself”: The Hidden Emotional Toll of Intensified Immigration Enforcement on Bicultural Child Welfare Professionals (Society for Social Work and Research 31st Annual Conference)

Schedule:

Friday, January 22, 2027

Golden Gate 1 (Hilton San Francisco Union Square)

* noted as presenting author

Michelle Zaragoza, MSW, LCSW, Doctoral Student, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

Alishba Sardar, Graduate Student, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

Vania Buck, MSW, PhD Student, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Kristina Lovato, PhD, MSW, Assistant Professor, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

Sophia Sepp, MSW, MPH, Program Manager, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM

Background and Purpose:

Intensified immigration enforcement has produced profound challenges for child welfare professionals supporting immigrant families. Escalations in interior and border enforcement have generated pervasive fear of deportation and growing institutional mistrust among immigrant families. Within this context, child welfare practice increasingly requires workers to navigate not only family well-being and child safety concerns, but also immigration-related risk and uncertainty. These conditions can produce emotional strain for workers while operating within systems that may not be equipped to respond to the current realities of immigrant families. This qualitative study explores bicultural child welfare professionals’ emotional experiences and practice tensions when supporting immigrant families amid intensified immigration enforcement.

Methods:

This qualitative study draws on semi-structured interviews with n=39 child welfare professionals (e.g., frontline social workers, supervisors, administrators) serving immigrant families in California. Participants were recruited via purposive and snowball sampling. Data were collected through audio-recorded virtual interviews from January to June 2026. Data were transcribed, cleaned, and de-identified. Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was used to analyze the findings.

Results:

Data analysis revealed three primary themes: 1) compounded secondary trauma; 2) overburdened and isolated; and 3) a duty to the community. Compounded secondary trauma emerged from dual exposure to clients’ deportation fears and workers’ own familial immigration vulnerability, manifesting as anxiety, guilt, and sadness. Bicultural and bilingual workers experienced overwhelm and isolation as tokenized knowledge holders, with supervisors acknowledging overreliance on their immigration, language, and cultural knowledge/experience and limited institutional support. Frontline child welfare workers sustained their commitment to serving immigrant families and would “rather be the one working with them,” expressing a duty to the community rooted in feelings of warmth, determination, and fulfillment. These emotional dynamics were contextualized by practice tensions child welfare professionals encounter, including: experiencing a climate of uncertainty and fear while balancing role limitations with their desire to protect families from enforcement harm, and navigating systemic resource gaps intensified by the current political climate.

Implications:

Findings highlight the urgent need for child welfare agencies to recognize intensified immigration enforcement as a structural stressor affecting both families and workers. Training, supervision, and policy guidance can better prepare child welfare professionals to navigate immigration-related risk and uncertainty. Policies that strengthen immigration-informed child welfare practice may reduce worker distress and promote responsive systems that sustain both immigrant families and the professionals serving them.