This policy brief summarizes how recent federal immigration policies threaten children’s well-being through family separation and detention, and outlines state and local strategies to protect children’s rights and support immigrant families.
The March 2026 Visa Bulletin opens a new window for many young people with Special Immigrant Juvenile Status to apply for a green card and work authorization, and this resource guides advocates through the adjustment of status filing process.
This resource offers safety planning guidance for academics and scholars working on immigration policy.
Immigrant mothers are increasingly having survival conversations with their children about ICE enforcement, drawing parallels to the “Talk” Black families have long given their children about police.
Families released from the Dilley detention facility face an abrupt and disorienting transition and grapple with the lasting medical, psychological, and financial consequences of detention.
After eight months in immigration detention, a 25-year-old former foster youth and advocate chose to voluntarily leave the US for Mexico, separating him from his 4-year-old son and the only country he has known since age 3.
Despite legal limits on detention length, over 900 immigrant children were held in family detention for longer than 20 days as of January, with roughly 270 confined for more than twice that limit, in conditions advocates describe as traumatic and developmentally harmful.
Amid record deaths in ICE custody and intensifying enforcement, many immigrants are drafting wills and preparing for the worst as fear of raids, violent encounters, and detention spreads through immigrant communities across the country.
The Trump administration is deporting parents without asking about or making arrangements for their children, in violation of its own policies, leaving US citizen children without stable caregivers.
The detainee population at the Dilley family detention facility dropped dramatically from over 900 to around 100 following public pressure sparked by letters written by detained children.
© 2026 CICW.