Erika Marquez works with DACA recipients and immigrants in Las Vegas. She is an advocate at the nonprofit Make the Road Nevada where she sees the day-to-day impact delays take on their mental health.
“I'm in a group and a lot of those DACA recipients that are still waiting for their DACA renewal are having mental problems … depression is hitting them hard, ” Marquez said. “The mental strain is definitely present in our community.”
They isolate themselves — even ordering everything they can online.
Osea Giuntella, a health economics professor at the University of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, studies how immigration policy affects health.
Giuntella’s research on immigration status reveals high anxiety levels that disrupt sleep.
“It keeps you up at night … you have stress. You can get anxious, and that can get in the way of your health,” Giuntella said. “What we saw in that paper was that DACA increased the likelihood of eligible immigrants to sleep better.”
Because his DACA research spans from 2012 to 2016, not accounting for recent DACA instability, he is unsure if that is still true.
The current Trump administration eliminated an avenue of healthcare access under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The phrase “lawfully present” in the healthcare act was officially changed to exclude DACA recipients in Aug. 2025.
Previously, recipients could access healthcare through Nevada Health Link, a state-operated marketplace that connects people to health insurance through the ACA. The only remaining avenues include employer or private insurance.
Without DACA, Marquez said she would lose work authorization which would mean she’d lose her health benefits she receives through her job.
“As a type one diabetic, I need the insurance to be able to be seen with my endocrinologist, to be able to get the medicines that I need to be able to get insulin,” Marquez said.
At one point in her life, Marquez fell into a coma when using her husband’s medicine instead of buying her own insulin. She simply couldn’t afford her medication.
“I remember having the nurses come in crying with me and saying, ‘Erica, you were dead. Like you don't understand. You were dead,’” Marquez said.
On top of paying for a monthly premium, Marquez had to pay for her medication. She had been skipping doctors appointments up until she got deathly sick.
“I don't think my family deserves that. I don't feel my community should go through the hardship of knowing of me dying again,” Marquez said.
This year, she sent in an expedited form, a form requesting a faster renewal process for emergencies. Without employment, she wouldn’t have access to life-saving medicines.
Kyle Edgerton, a northern Nevada immigration attorney, said he also submitted expedited forms for two of his clients.
He said there are certain criteria for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services or USCIS to approve expedited forms. Urgent humanitarian reasons or the imminent loss of a job are some.
He filed for imminent unemployment on behalf of his two clients. His forms were rejected.
“That was not determined to be a sufficient basis for expedited processing, and so those cases continued to languish up until one person had to take a leave of absence, the other person had their renewal come in just in the nick of time, ” Edgerton said.
USCIS rejected Marquez’s request as well.
Even if someone doesn’t have a chronic illness or a consistent need for medication, Giuntella said that having healthcare access itself is beneficial for mental health.
“[DACA recipients are] also a very young population, so obviously access to health insurance is basically granting you against the risk of catastrophic expenditures,” Giuntella said. “So this [is] sort of reducing stress on families, and you know even the stress of having to think, ‘oh, what if something happens to me?’”
Healthcare also provides access to mental health services, Giuntella said.
Marquez struggled with her mental state up until USCIS finally approved her renewal in August. She didn’t even realize she had gotten approved.
She calls it the silent approval. Marquez said the authorized form had been sitting in the USCIS web portal for two days before she realized it came through. She never got a notification on her renewal status and she thinks other people may not know.
“I want to be able to educate and continue to educate people on, because it does make a difference in that mental state and emotional state,” Marquez said. “This is the reason why I continue to fight. This is the reason why I didn't die three years ago.”
