This policy brief argues that government-enforced family separation is not merely a regulatory decision but a traumatic severing of family bonds that undermines child welfare, destabilizes communities, and violates children’s fundamental right to safety and belonging.
This report discusses how recent policy changes within ORR that break down pathways to release are keeping children in detention for prolonged periods of time
This parent-facing brochure offers guidance on how to talk with children about immigration enforcement and raids in their communities.
This toolkit clarifies which public benefits — including SNAP, Medicaid, and Head Start — immigrant families may still be eligible for, addressing the confusion around eligibility rules that causes many families to forgo food and nutrition support they qualify for.
The Trump administration is seeking to deport five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, the Ecuadorian boy detained in Minneapolis, just days after he returned home to Minnesota following weeks at a Texas family detention facility.
A federal judge ruled that the deportation of three migrant families — who had already been separated under Trump’s first-term family separation policy — was unlawful and ordered the government to return them to the U.S.
Eight children detained with their parents at a Texas immigration facility describe their experience through letters and drawings, offering a glimpse into the suffering of the hundreds of kids currently held in detention.
Child health experts warn that immigration enforcement — which is separating families, detaining toddlers, and exposing children to violence — constitutes a public health crisis, with decades of research showing that the resulting toxic stress causes lasting damage to children’s developing brains and bodies.
At least 32 children across seven states have entered foster care after their parents were detained or deported amid record-high immigration enforcement, though the true national scale remains unknown due to a lack of comprehensive federal and state data.
Advocates are trying to defend a 40-year-old injunction that guarantees unaccompanied immigrant children the right to be informed of their legal options and contact a trusted adult before making immigration decisions — protections the Trump administration is now seeking to eliminate.
© 2026 CICW.