Sanctuary mindset: An action framework to affirm immigrant mental health in distressing periods

Global conditions continue to push individuals to migrate to meet basic human needs and live peacefully. The numbers of global immigrants peaked at 281 million in 2024. In the United States, current federal and state policies generally reflect anti-immigrant biases, inducing distress among individuals and families who have likely already experienced trauma and adversities. While sanctuary policies were implemented in certain cities and municipalities to protect immigrants, these policies stand in contrast to aggressive and inhumane federal enforcement. This article introduces an action framework named sanctuary mindset, which is rooted in critical consciousness and intended to organize the attitudes and practices that everyday people may embrace to affirm the mental health of immigrants during periods of great distress. Sanctuary mindset is composed of cognitive and behavioral components enacted at the convergence of three principles: (a) gratitude for the inherent values that humans hold regardless of legal status, (b) appreciation for the capability of human agency and psychological strengths in adverse and hostile environments, and (c) care for social structures that promote human healing and flourishing. Each of the three principles is designed to address core myths about immigrants. Psychological science, ethics, multicultural competencies, and human rights articles supporting this framework are reviewed. Examples are presented to illustrate the application of a sanctuary mindset in health care and behavioral health and education and higher education settings. Sanctuary mindset may be useful to inform the behaviors that practitioners, scholars, and the public can embrace as they seek to support the well-being of immigrants. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).