This is a web edition of GBH Daily, a weekday newsletter bringing you local stories you can trust so you can stay informed without feeling overwhelmed.
🥵Sunny and hot, with highs around 89. Sunset is at 7:52 p.m.
Today we take a look at how our immigration reporter investigated the mental health effects of immigration detentions on families.
But first: It might not feel like it with today’s heat, but fall and winter are not too far away. That means that, in the public health world, it’s time to start thinking about flu season. The Food and Drug Administration just approved a new flu vaccine from Moderna, the Cambridge-based company, for anyone 50 and older. The vaccine uses mRNA technology — the same technology used in Moderna’s and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines. You’ll likely be able to find these shots at your local pharmacy within a few weeks.
“With the older, more traditional technology, it could take a while between being able to make the decision as to what strains are going to be included in the vaccine and getting it to the people,” Dr. Sabrina Assoumou, an infectious disease physician at Boston Medical Center and associate professor at Boston University, told GBH’s Sara Hassan. “Having this mRNA technology is going to allow us to move at a quicker pace, which is going to be very helpful and hopefully have a more accurate vaccine that’s going to be more protective for flu season.” You can read more about the new vaccine here.
Four Things to Know
1. The U.S. Navy declined to help recover the remains of seven people who died onboard the Lily Jean, a fishing vessel that sank off Gloucester’s coast in January. “We are deeply sympathetic toward the families affected by this tragedy. However, the U.S. Navy is unable to fulfill your request for salvage and recovery,” Navy officials wrote in a letter.
The families of the seven people who died don’t all agree about whether they’d like their loved ones’ bodies recovered, said State Sen. Bruce Tarr, who with Gov. Maura Healey asked for the Navy’s help. “It is fair to say that some of the families feel very strongly that this is the final resting place of their loved ones, and it is essentially a gravesite, and it should not be disturbed from that perspective,” Tarr explained. “Others feel like they would have the benefit of additional closure if the remains of their loved ones were brought back for a proper burial.”
2. Brockton Mayor Moises Rodrigues asked a clerk-magistrate Friday not to go forward with an assault and battery charge against him. The charge came after a high school student accused him of inappropriately grabbing her, and pulling her close, during a parade in May. The student has since graduated.
There is video from that day, which a detective from the State Police showed Clerk-Magistrate Pamela Gauvin-Fernandes. If Gauvin-Fernandes decides criminal charges are appropriate in this case, the video could eventually be made public.
3. Community Healthlink, a behavioral health agency in the Worcester area that treats about 20,000 patients a year, is shutting down and passing some of its programs on to other organizations in the area. Places like Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance, Behavioral Health Network and Clinical & Support Options have agreed to take on some of its programs.
Some Community Healthlink employees will take new jobs with those organizations, which means patients may still be able to see the same providers they’ve been working with. But others will be out of a job when the organization closes at some point in the next month.
4. A team from the Center for Coastal Studies freed a young humpback whale that got entangled in rope off the coast of Rockport last week. The rescuers, based in Provincetown, pulled the rope out of the whale’s mouth using a grappling hook, cut a buoy that got caught in the tangle and used large floats to pull the rest of the rope away from the whale.
You can see video of the rescue here. Rescuers said they expect the whale to make a full recovery and gave the rope to investigators with NOAA Fisheries to try and figure out where it came from. If you see a dead or injured marine mammal, keep your distance and report it to the NOAA Fisheries stranding hotline at 1-866-755-6622.
Silent detention: The psychological impact of ICE arrests on families reaches a crisis point
By Sarah Betancourt, GBH News reporter
In her last days, Jeronima Quinilla Castro didn’t sleep.
The memory of her husband’s detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a roadside stop remained fresh, even though he was eventually released.
Jeronima worried he would be re-detained or deported, or that her three children would be taken away. She stopped working, and cried constantly. She went to a community health clinic in New Bedford, explaining her growing depression, and the physical symptoms of it. She wasn’t set up to see a psychologist, psychiatrist or go to an in-patient facility, her husband and advocates said.
“That fear took hold of her — the fear that they were going to come for me and she’d be left alone with the kids. She said, ‘What am I going to do? They’re going to deport you, they’re going to hurt you. And what will I do with the children?’” said her husband, Catarino Castro. “That idea got stuck in her head and triggered that anxiety, where she became consumed by fear.”
By July, Jeronima took a turn for the worst, and she eventually died by suicide. She left behind a devastated family and community members.
Immigrant families are facing an unprecedented mental health crisis. Barriers to getting help are structural and cultural, including lack of access to health insurance that covers behavioral health; the cost of appointments; a shortage of clinicians and those that understand the layers of trauma experienced by immigrants; personal hesitation; and cultural stigma.
Over the past few months I’ve had the honor of talking with over 70 sources about the impact detention is having on the behavioral health of immigrants. Those affected include detained immigrants, their partners and their children.
For this first story, I focused on immigrant families who have reached the breaking point — ignored by existing systems and facing tremendous upheaval in pursuit of the American Dream. You can read it in full here.
This is the first of many features published on this issue over the next few months through GBH and in partnership with the University of Southern California Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2026 National Fellowship.
We will continue talking with communities affected by these issues, and encourage you to reach out to Family_BH@wgbh.org if you’re interested in being interviewed or connecting with impacted community members.
Dig deeper:
-Brighton mom from Honduras forced to self-deport with US citizen daughter
-‘It’s my responsibility’: In the wake of ICE raids, youth support their families
-There were over 600 ICE arrests in Mass. courthouses last year. Here’s where they occurred.