Fear of deportation is keeping immigrant residents out of Long Beach civic life

"Never once in my life did I ever think I would have to be one of those people that has to look over my shoulder because ICE would be there."

The person who said this was a participant in a six-month pilot study of immigrant civic engagement in Long Beach, California. The quote captures a pattern that researchers from UC Irvine documented across interviews with 24 Cambodian, Filipino, and Latinx residents: a withdrawal from public life driven not just by immigration status, but by the fear that existing in public spaces had become dangerous.

The study, led by Susan Coutin, professor of criminology, law and society at UCI, and doctoral student Jahaira Pacheco, was conducted in partnership with three Long Beach community organizations - the Filipino Migrant Center, Latinos in Action California, and United Cambodian Community of Long Beach. It was funded by the Haynes Foundation's Democracy and Good Governance program.

Three barriers to participation

Through interviews conducted in English, Spanish, and Khmer, the researchers identified three overlapping categories of obstacles. The first was fear and distrust - not limited to undocumented residents, but extending to U.S. citizens worried about family members and to people whose histories in their countries of origin had taught them that engagement with government carries risk.

The second barrier was a knowledge gap. When researchers asked participants whether they had ever attended a city council meeting to give public comment, some responded, "you can do that?" Basic civic mechanisms that Long Beach residents are legally entitled to use were effectively invisible to many of those interviewed.

The third category involved practical constraints: childcare responsibilities, work schedules that conflict with city office hours, language barriers, and transportation challenges. One participant described walking two hours each way to work when she first arrived because she did not understand the bus system.

Roots of avoidance

For many participants, the current climate of fear was not their first experience of institutional threat. Researchers noted that the Cambodian community carries what one participant described as "an undercurrent of trauma that leads to this mentality of wanting to be hospitable but also invisible" - a reference to the historical trauma of genocide and displacement that shapes how community members relate to authority.

Multiple participants reported staying home as much as possible, avoiding government buildings, and relying on family members to run errands. Several said they had stopped using parks. These behavioral changes reduce not just civic participation but access to city services, health resources, and social connection - with compounding effects on well-being.

The research also documented what participants value. Study respondents had strong ties to Long Beach, with many having lived in the city for decades, raised families there, and contributed through volunteer work. They cited the city's diversity and cultural communities as reasons to stay. The public library system received particular praise as an institution that provides welcoming, accessible services with culturally relevant programming.

What the study recommends

Based on their findings, the research team identified three strategies that participants found effective and that they recommend city agencies adopt. The first is trauma-informed practice - acknowledging that many immigrant residents have experienced trauma and designing services and interactions accordingly, rather than assuming that formal procedures feel neutral or safe to everyone.

The second recommendation is strengthening communication pathways through trusted community institutions, using multiple outreach channels including printed materials for those without reliable internet access.

The third is codesign: direct collaboration between city officials and residents in designing the services those residents use. Participants described this as meaningfully different from consultation, which they characterized as decisions already made being presented for comment.

Scope and limits of the pilot

The study interviewed 24 people ranging in age from 18 to 85, with a median age of 39, across varied occupations, gender identities, and immigration statuses. Interviews generated approximately 500 pages of transcripts. The sample is small by design - this was explicitly a pilot study, intended to identify patterns and refine methods rather than produce statistically generalizable findings. The research team hopes to expand with focus groups, surveys, a larger sample, and interviews with city officials and employees.

The pilot's limitation in scale also points to what remains unknown: whether the patterns documented in Long Beach - and among Cambodian, Filipino, and Latinx residents specifically - hold across different immigrant communities, different cities, or different enforcement environments. The researchers do not claim that their findings describe all immigrant experiences with civic life.

What the study does establish is that immigration enforcement policies produce civic effects that extend well beyond their immediate legal targets. When fear of enforcement causes U.S. citizens to avoid parks, city offices, and public meetings, the democratic participation those institutions are designed to enable has already been diminished - before any legal action has taken place.