Abstract
The topic of immigration has become more politically charged over the past few decades. This has brought more attention to policies that impact the Latinx community. Walsdorf et al. (2023) stated that these policies have an impact on those it affects directly but also those who witness them. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe how Latinx individuals experienced the psycho-political change after 2016. These personalized accounts aim to develop knowledge of the impact that this climate is having on the Latinx community. The sample gathered consisted of 6 Latinx individuals with 3 being male and 3 being female. The participants were between 21 and 30 years of age. The participants were U.S. citizens from Minnesota. Every participant completed a semi structured interview. The results showed that the new psycho-political change created a time of uncertainty where most participants experienced negative emotions such as anxiety and worry. Additionally, this climate resulted in hyperawareness, impacted the participant’s relationships, and changed behavior. The psycho-political change also caused self-reflection, and motivated participants to vote. These findings were more salient for participants who had family or friends who were undocumented. Participants also discussed positive coping skills. Some of these findings appear to not be unique to the Latinx community. These findings add to our understanding of prejudice and discrimination. A discussion including a summary of findings, implications for clinical practice, ethical issues, considerations for future research, diversity issues, and limitations of the current study are also discussed.