(StatePoint) For years, young families have struggled to find quality affordable child care—a problem created by long-term lack of government investments and exacerbated by the pandemic and inflation. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called the nation’s child care system “a textbook example of a broken market.” Thousands of programs have closed in recent years and for those still operating, prices are high and waitlists long.
Now, intensified immigration enforcement is creating new pressure on this already-fragile system. Immigrants are essential to the care workforce, making up 20% of child care workers, including 26% of center-based child care providers and early educators, and 23% of preschool teachers, according to the Center for Law and Social Policy. Young families in particular depend on these care workers, but advocates say they can’t stay in their jobs when they are living in fear, detained or deported. The Better Life Lab reports the sharp increase in ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) activity starting in January 2025 has already resulted in roughly 39,000 fewer foreign-born child care workers nationwide and 77,000 fewer mothers of preschool-aged children in the workforce.
“When child care programs are forced to reduce capacity or close, the harm is extensive. Parents are forced to leave much-needed jobs, businesses can’t recruit employees they need, kids go without early education opportunities that help them thrive, and more children go hungry and without health care,” said MomsRising Executive Director and CEO Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner. “Families, communities, small businesses, and our economy suffer. Unfortunately, the Trump administration’s immigration policies are destabilizing the care infrastructure that families depend on to work, provide, and thrive—and are undermining our economy.”
Growing evidence shows the Trump administration’s immigration policies are also traumatizing the children and families these educators serve. News stories have documented immigration raids outside child care and afterschool programs and even inside schools. In Chicago, a child care worker was arrested outside Rayito de Sol Early Learning Center in front of families. In Charlotte, the ourBRIDGE for KIDS afterschool program closed for days when ICE agents amassed outside of it. And school systems across the country are reporting steep, alarming drops in student attendance.
Seeing these actions, or losing a loved and trusted teacher or friend, traumatizes all the children affected, not just the people authorities are targeting, advocates and concerned parents say. That’s why a growing number of mothers, educators, medical professionals, and others are asking the Trump administration to reinstate the longstanding policy that protected churches, schools and hospitals from immigration enforcement. Congress is also considering the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act, which would prohibit immigration enforcement at child care centers, schools, hospitals, churches and other sensitive spaces.
“Child care is essential to the country’s success, and immigrant caregivers help keep child care programs open, educating our children, and supporting communities,” Rowe-Finkbeiner added. “Our nation needs a safe and orderly immigration process that balances compassion and security, not cruelty. Children should never be made to feel unsafe.”
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