For some young Latinos, the deadly attack in El Paso hit especially hard, because there’s already a lot of trauma to deal with.
Hateful rhetoric, discrimination against immigrants, fears about ICE raids and families being separated is all taking a toll on the mental health of young people.
Now, add a mass shooting in which Hispanics were targeted.
Carmen Gonzalez is a student journalist with Boyle Heights Beat and will be a freshman at Santa Monica College this fall. She reflected on the recent shooting in El Paso and how anti-immigrant sentiment has affected her and her family.
"The anti-immigrant sentiment has always been here," she told KCRW. "But now civilians have gotten bold with their language. People [are] posting on Facebook and on Twitter, 'go back to your country' or, you know, 'build a wall.' It has affected especially the Boyle Heights community in the way that we go about being out. When the earthquakes were happening, at the Food for Less the sirens went off and my mom’s first thought was, like, 'oh is there an ICE raid happening?' And she's a citizen."