SynthesisPloS one2020
The adverse health effects of punitive immigrant policies in the United States: A systematic review.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- Federal Immigration Enforcement Deployment and Emergency Department Utilization Among Children.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Protecting Health Care as a Safe Space: Immigration Enforcement and Public Health.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2026Article
- State HIV Prevention Policy Environments and HIV Prevention Outcomes: Racial and Ethnic Differences in the United States.AIDS and behavior · 2026Article
- Anti-Latine bias and drug-induced homicide law support: Evidence from a nationally diverse, randomized survey experiment in the United States.The International journal on drug policy · 2026Article
- Longitudinal norms of frailty measured by the frailty index: A cross-national comparison using data from the survey of health, aging, and retirement in Europe (SHARE).The Journal of frailty & aging · 2026Observational
- Reconsideration of Secure Communities rollout reveals preemptive local-federal cooperation in immigration enforcement.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Social, psychological, and cultural dimensions of cardiovascular health among Hispanic/Latino adults: A narrative review of findings from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026Review
- Immigrant perspectives on navigating the US healthcare system in the Post-COVID-19 landscape: a photo-elicitation project.Journal of migration and health · 2026Article
- Utilization of Healthcare Among Asian Origin Groups and Citizenship Status.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Article
- Including Undocumented Immigrants in Health Research-A Narrative Review of Barriers, Effective Approaches, and Best Practices in the United States.Health science reports · 2025Article
- Interior Immigration Enforcement Experiences, Perceived Discrimination, and Mental Health of U.S.-citizen, Adolescents with Mexican Immigrant Parents.Journal of latinx psychology · 2025Article
- Documentation of Stigmatizing Language in Electronic Health Records and Birth Outcomes.Health equity · 2025Article
- Clinician Perspectives on Challenges among Latinx Adolescents with Suicidal Behaviors and their Families.The journal of applied research on children : informing policy for children at risk · 2025Article
- State-Level Immigrant Policies and Ideal Family Size in the United States.Population and development review · 2024Article
- Socio-Demographic and Disability Disparities in Stroke by Citizenship Status: A Cross-Sectional Analysis.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2024Article
- Downgraded dreams: Labor market outcomes and mental health in undocumented migration.SSM - population health · 2024Article
- The legacy of immigration policies and employment exclusion: Assessing the relationship between employment exclusions and immigrant health.SSM - population health · 2024Article
- The effects of experience of discrimination and acculturation during pregnancy on the developing offspring brain.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Article
- The Toll of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Latinx Mixed-Status Immigrant Families in a Restrictive Immigration Policy Climate in the Southeast.Children and youth services review · 2023Article
- Supportive relationships in childhood: Does it have a long Reach into health and depression outcomes for immigrants from Latin America?SSM - population health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundImmigrants in the United States (US) today are facing a dynamic policy landscape. The Trump administration has threatened or curtailed access to basic services for 10.5 million undocumented immigrants currently in the US. We sought to examine the historical effects that punitive laws have had on health outcomes in US immigrant communities.
methodsIn this systematic review, we searched the following databases from inception-May 2020 for original research articles with no language restrictions: Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid EMBASE, Cochrane Library (Wiley), Web of Science Core Collection (Clarivate), CINAHL (EBSCO), and Social Work Abstracts (Ovid). This study is registered with PROSPERO, CRD42019138817. Articles with cohort sizes >10 that directly evaluated the health-related effects of a punitive immigrant law or policy within the US were included.
findings6,357 studies were screened for eligibility. Of these, 32 studies were selected for inclusion and qualitatively synthesized based upon four themes that appeared throughout our analysis: (1) impact on healthcare utilization, (2) impact on women's and children's health, (3) impact on mental health services, and (4) impact on public health. The impact of each law, policy, mandate, and directive since 1990 is briefly discussed, as are the limitations and risk of bias of each study.
interpretationMany punitive immigrant policies have decreased immigrant access to and utilization of basic healthcare services, while instilling fear, confusion, and anxiety in these communities. The federal government should preserve and expand access for undocumented individuals without threat of deportation to improve health outcomes for US citizens and noncitizens.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.