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When Antuanett Lopez started her private mental healthcare practice in Jackson almost a year ago, she wanted her patients to feel at ease when they walked through the sliding door to her office.
As one of Jackson’s few Spanish-speaking therapists, decorating with nods to her Latino heritage was the first step.
“When I was envisioning my practice, I wanted to bring colors because that talks a lot about the Latino culture,” Lopez said.
So, she did just that.
A Frida Kahlo keychain hangs from a lamp while leafy plants liven up the coffee table and textile weavings envelop the office walls. A llama figurine adorned with bright pom-poms pays homage to Lopez’s home country of Peru.
Outside her cozy office, however, a crackdown on immigrants rages on.
Since February, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, ICE, has picked up 98 people from the Teton County jail, a pace Sheriff Matt Carr described as “steady.”
Making her patients comfortable, many of whom share the experience of being an immigrant, can only go so far.
“There is a lot of anxiety and emotional exhaustion because many people have needed to modify their daily routines,” Lopez added. “Driving less, even going to the grocery store less, because it could be very scary.”
Those who end up in ICE custody here are most often picked up at the jail after a driving-related arrest by local law enforcement. It makes for a more subtle federal presence than the high-profile workplace raids common in other parts of the country, but complicates driving, a necessity in rural communities like the Tetons.
Lopez sees much of the fallout in the community.
Her clients living across Teton Pass, in the Idaho communities of Victor and Driggs, have almost completely stopped driving to Jackson for in-person appointments.
“I know that their emotional safety is important, but also physical safety is important,” Lopez said.
Driving with licenses legally granted to immigrants in other states is now, since the summer, criminalized in Wyoming. Both Idaho and Wyoming have also recently authorized their state highway patrols and National Guards to work on behalf of ICE.
Social outings have also looked a lot different. This summer’s poorly attended Banda performance at the county fair is just one example, according to Lopez.
“That was a very successful event last year. Many people came,” Lopez said. “They were having fun, their kids were playing at the fair and they were able to listen to their music that they grew up with.”
This year, only about a third of those who bought tickets came out to what’s usually a well-attended event, according to Teton County spokesperson Kristin Waters.
Celebrations for Latino heritage events largely remained underground into the fall as well.
Event planning for Hispanic Heritage Month, the several independence day events for Latin American countries, holidays like Día de Los Muertos and Día del Niño, has been communicated more “mouth-to-mouth,” Lopez added.
Though many clients come to Lopez for stressors beyond immigration status, social life becoming more discrete adds to the strain.
Acknowledging this, Teton County’s Public Health Coordinator Beverly Shore pointed to the fear of ICE activity as a contributor to poor community mental health this summer. She also referenced the low turnout at the Banda performance.
“People being scared to fully participate in life, do things that they enjoy, do things that they look forward to,” Shore said. “The uncertainty and the fear of that is debilitating.”
A Cheyenne-based immigrant advocacy group has made similar observations statewide.
“Immigrants aren’t being just terrorized by law enforcement, people of color are also, especially Latino/Latina community members,” said Shelly Ann, a board member at Juntos, referencing the recent Supreme Court decision to allow for racial profiling in immigration arrests. “That all is compounding trauma.”
Ann said that meeting the moment for her non-profit meant starting to provide psychological exams in the last year, which can be used in court cases to help secure citizenship status or seek asylum.
“That’s something that we have progressed into because of this war on immigrants,” Ann said.
Noticing the same need for some of her clients, Lopez decided to start the certification process to conduct these evaluations as well.
While she can’t change what’s going on outside her warmly lit office, Lopez can at least tap into her own experiences as an immigrant once herself. At 13, she was angry and confused when her mom first brought her to the United States.
Now, Lopez gets to provide a service she lacked access to when she first immigrated.
“I understand the difficulties of financial challenges, lack of resources, language accessibility and many other barriers that could be not just for Hispanic immigrants but for any immigrant,” she added.
Her overarching goal is to help people feel less alone.
“There have been immigrants before them and there will be immigrants after them,” Lopez said.
Ed. Lopez hosts a show “Crops of Wisdom/Cultivos de Sabiduria” on 89.1 FM KHOL that airs each Wednesday at 2:00 p.m.
