This resource for child welfare social workers provides updates on immigration policy affecting children and families, discusses how immigration enforcement impacts the child welfare system, describes protections that exist to help keep immigrant families intact, and provides resources for social workers to support and work more effectively with immigrant families.
View ResourceThis study describes how recent immigrant policy changes and news are impacting the lives of Latina/o immigrant parents raising adolescent children.
View StudyThis publication presents an overview of state laws that designate the officials and entities that may have access to the confidential records of child abuse and neglect reports and investigations, the circumstances under which information may be disclosed, and the appropriate use of confidential information. Public disclosure of information in cases of child abuse-related fatalities or near fatalities also is addressed. Summaries of laws related to these issues for all states and U.S. territories are included.
Access Resource
This fact sheet provides information to immigrant parents regarding their parental rights and what to do if they are separated from their children at the border.
View Fact Sheet (English) View Fact Sheet (Spanish)This article highlights the signing and implementation of the TRUST Act by Governor Bruce Rauner in Chicago, IL which took place in August. This law denies local law enforcement the ability to detain people on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency charged with identifying and investigating immigrants present in the country illegally. It also prohibits local officials from inquiring about a person’s immigration status.
Read ArticleThis ICE Fact Sheet details the agency’s current policy and procedures when detaining and removing parents and legal guardians of minor children. These policy considerations include, but are not limited to, the Parental Interests Directive.
Access Fact SheetThis report reviews existing literature on immigrant children and families who encounter the child welfare and/or juvenile justice systems to assess the needs, current relevant policies and practices, and existing gaps in research related to this population.
Access Full ReportThe goal of the Roundtable, and of the CICW Strategic Planning meeting that occurred the following day, was to create opportunities for collaboration, resource sharing, and establishment of new practice, policy, and research priorities.
Read the ReportThis report documents how the current immigration context is affecting our nation’s youngest children, under age eight, based on interviews and focus groups in 2017 with more than 150 early childhood educators and parents in six states—California, Georgia, Illinois, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.
Read ReportThis study investigates the relationship between immigrant parent legal status and academic performance among U.S.-born children, ages 7–10.
Read ArticleThe author explores and explains the short-term and long-term impact of deportation and immigration enforcement on children in Mexican immigrant families.
Read ArticleThis advisory provides an overview of hardship in waivers: when you need to prove hardship, whose hardship counts, and what is hardship.
View ResourceThis guide offers an overall framework for developing, implementing and/or strengthening a family centered practice model, cites specific examples from States and Tribes, and provides additional information to help child welfare agencies and their partners make informed choices in selecting their approaches to this important work.
View GuideThis fact checking piece by the ABA examines the meaning and origin of the term “chain migration” and how it is being used today to shape the public’s view of immigrant families coming to the U.S.
View ResourceThis issue brief discusses how Trump’s immigration policies impact young children and details current research on the impacts of breaking families apart, instilling fear in immigrant communities, and preventing families from accessing programs that meet children’s basic needs.
Read Report Spanish VersionThe Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM) provides instructions that officials in U.S. embassies and consulates abroad use to make decisions about whether to grant non–U.S. citizens permission to enter the U.S. This resource provides information about recent changes to the FAM.
View ResourceThis article highlights the collaboration between representatives from the Mexican Government with advocates, lawyers, judges, workers from the Department of Child Safety, and representatives from Arizona. The goal of these work groups is to achieve the best outcomes for children and families when parents have been detained or deported.
Read ArticleThis opinion piece discusses the often overlooked issue of some immigrants not having a home to return to, as result of being undocumented and having grown up in the U.S. and never seeing their “home” countries.
Read ArticleThe judicial battle over the Trump administration’s efforts to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protected 690,000 young unauthorized immigrants from deportation, has just been extended by several months as a result of a ruling from the Supreme Court.
Read ArticleThe New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsut against Trump administration officials over what it called prolonged detention of immigrant children, blaming recent shifts in U.S. government policy for keeping children locked up without cause.
Read Article
© 2026 CICW.