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As the Trump administration vows to fulfill campaign promises of mass deportations, Lesley Ellefson-Porras, an immigration lawyer in Alexandria, Virginia, has been accepting invitations to visit local schools and child care centers to explain the situation to staff and educators. On these visits, she says she has been inundated with questions from early educators and families.
“I got a question [about] whether or not ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] can look through your purse. I got a question about kids carrying their documents. One parent asked, if she elected a standby guardian and if that guardian took the child home, whether that would keep [her] kid from getting deported.”
Veronica Thronson, a law professor and the director of the Immigration Law Clinic at Michigan State University Law School is also making herself available to answer legal questions. She’s conducted a number of trainings at the Refugee Development Center, a local nonprofit supporting refugees in Michigan, and was a panelist on a recent Migration Policy Institute webinar about issues affecting immigrant families and early childhood systems.
Thronson says Trump’s executive order about birthright citizenship (regardless of its dubious legality) unleashed a flood of phone calls from clinic clients with children. “They were saying they heard from a neighbor that their kid is not a citizen anymore, and so we have spent a lot of time saying, ‘No, no, no, you are safe. Your child is a U.S. citizen’.”
The clinic Thronson leads is for second- and third-year law students who serve clients in East Lansing and surrounding areas who come from Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela and her own home country of Guatemala.
“We usually have them come to our office to meet with us,” she explains, “but now we’re saying, ‘No, we’re coming to you’ so they don’t risk getting stopped along the way because they may not have a driver’s license or they may not have a very good car that gets stuck in the middle of the road. We minimize the risk of them getting encountered by ICE.” Many of her students are immigrants themselves or are related to immigrants. “They are worried about enforcement against their own families,” she adds.
To date, there have been some high-publicity workplace raids, but no confirmed raids on child care centers.
Thronson says, “I’m really hoping that ICE has enough on their hands, targeting people who are serving a criminal sentence or people who have prior orders of removal. That gives us a chance to prepare the community.”
Immigration advocates and legal experts have differing opinions about the severity of the threat, but there are some consistent themes in how they are approaching the moment.
Supporting Early Educators In Understanding The Rights of Children and Their Families
Key advocacy organizations, including The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) and the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) are providing — and regularly updating — resources for child care educators. According to Suma Setty, senior policy analyst at CLASP, about one in five U.S. child care providers is an immigrant. “Unless something drastic happens, there are certain things that will remain true, like your Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights,” she says, referring to protection against arbitrary arrest and self-incrimination, respectively. “All people have a constitutional right to remain silent.”
She adds that child care providers and early educators should understand that the only warrants they must honor are those signed by a judge.
Helping Child Care Programs Make a Plan
Setty suggests that child care programs should put protocols in place to protect staff and families and that that will help them ease the anxiety. “They need to know what to do in a situation that might be scary and intimidating, such as if ICE agents show up at their door,” she notes.
CLASP provides guidance for how early childhood programs can create “safe space” policies to protect young children and their families. These policies empower staff to establish roles and responsibilities, including how to interact with federal immigration agents, how to minimize children’s learning and routines and how to notify parents about the presence of immigration agents.
Ellefson-Porras says families also have a role. “Check to make sure all your paperwork with the preschool is up to date,” she recommends. “Who is authorized to pick up your child?” In some cases, she tells parents and caregivers to consider having someone else pick up their child and drop them off at school.
Finding Developmentally Appropriate Ways to Acknowledge the Threat
“The last thing you want is to scare a child,” asserts Thronson. “They are already afraid. Many children we represent have no idea they have crossed the border. They have no idea what immigration is. Why are we going to instill fear in them? At the same time, she notes, it’s very important to convey the message to kids: Do not open the door.” She advises parents to update their emergency contact to designate another person to pick up their children in case they get caught up in an ICE raid.
Consequences for the Sector — and for Children
Setty notes that the threat of increased immigration enforcement has already caused damage. There have been reports of decreased attendance, which could harm child development as well as jeopardize funding. “There’s a concern that this will decimate an already-precarious industry,” she says. “If we’re talking about a lot of people disenrolling from Head Start or from other child care programs, it’s going to threaten child care supply.”
The situation is changing every day. “Something that might be relevant and apply now might not be relevant tomorrow,” says Setty. “The whole tactic of the Trump administration is to cause panic and anxiety and fear, but it’s important for folks to stay abreast of everything.”
Resources for Early Educators and Families:
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