Trump’s Deportation Agenda Threaten Parents, Care Workers and School Children Across the Country in Reckless Raids

Washington, D.C – Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda continues to unleash chaos and sow fear in local communities—this time targeting children on school buses, a father buying formula for his child, and childcare workers. Despite claims that enforcement would be narrow and focused on public safety threats, these raids continue to reveal the truth: Trump’s immigration policy is cruel, chaotic, and indiscriminate. Now, Trump and Republicans are pushing for an additional $175 billion in funding to turbocharge their efforts, fueling more raids and disruption in homes, schools, and hospitals while threatening to defund food assistance and health care services for working families.

Fortunately, state leaders like Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and State Senator Analise Ortiz are standing up for their communities. This week, Senator Ortiz introduced the “Immigrant Trust Act” to ensure that local resources are used to promote public safety and strengthen community wellbeing, not in Trump’s mass detention and deportation operations. Attorney General Mayes, in an op-ed for AZ Central, committed to defend Arizonans against Trump’s sweeping and unconstitutional power grabs – including his effort to upend the 14th amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship. Mayes and Ortiz join numerous other state and local leaders standing up to Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda.

Read more about the everyday Americans affected by Trump’s anti-immigrant assault:

NPR: “Texas Warns Parents Over Immigration Raids on School Buses”

“The Alice Independent School District in South Texas warned parents on Wednesday that U.S. Border Patrol agents may board school buses to conduct immigration checks on students traveling for extracurricular activities, potentially resulting in detention or deportation

“Oscar Silva, a 24-year-old DACA recipient, told Newsweek: “Trump permitting ICE agents to make arrests within schools and houses of worship will raise ethical, social, and emotional questions that ripple far beyond the impact of any single arrest.

“My wife is currently a ninth grade school teacher at a local high school, dedicated to nurturing and supporting her students. The thought of one of them being forcibly removed from her classroom is heartbreaking. What would my wife tell the parents when their child does not come home?

Axios: “‘The scare is on’: Immigrants are avoiding food aid amid deportation threats”

Sesay, who emigrated from Sierra Leone, runs City of Light Helping Hands in Montgomery County. The church-based food pantry distributes essential groceries and cultural items such as masa and smoked fish to its African, Latino and Asian base.

Over 300 cars typically line up at Sesay’s Silver Spring food pickup, but he estimates numbers are down 15%. Immigrant volunteers, nervous about congregating, have also dropped off.

Across the river in Alexandria, the nonprofit Alive! typically serves more people this time of year, but executive director Jennifer Ayers tells Axios she’s also seeing a dip in numbers from their average of 5,000 families a month.

Vox: “Trump’s immigration policy is already terrifying America’s kids”

Ever since Donald Trump won the presidential election last November, kids around the country have been scared about what his promise of mass deportations might mean for them and their classmates.

“They come up and say, ‘What’s going to happen, teacher?’” Elma Alvarez, an instructional specialist at an elementary school in Tucson, Arizona, told me.

The Guardian: ‘They’re hurting our children, our babies’: US schools on high alert amid Trump immigration raids”

“As immigration officers moved in on Chicago following Donald Trump’s inauguration, carrying out the president’s plans for “mass deportations”, the city’s schools began to notice waves of absences. Parents were picking up kids early, or parking a few blocks away – fearful immigration raids will target the pickup rush. In a city that has received thousands of new immigrant students in recent years, teachers made house calls to check in on families that were terrified of leaving their homes.” 

“In Los Angeles on Monday, the school superintendent, Albert Carvalho, said that attendance across the school district, the second largest in the US, was down 20%, with about 80,000 students missing. He attributed the absences to both fear and activism, as students participated in nationwide protests against Trump’s immigration policies.”

Texas Tribune: “An immigrant faces deportation after a routine traffic stop in Texas, sparking more fear”

“A week ago, 29-year-old Jose Alvaro and his wife Ashley went out to buy some baby formula in Lubbock with their three kids when a police officer pulled them over for a problem with the vehicle’s license plate. The traffic stop has upended the family’s lives … Inside the vehicle, his 4-year-old son Antonio began to cry and asked, “What are they doing?” Ashley said. Jose Alvaro had been navigating the long, costly and cumbersome process of applying for a green card. Now he faces deportation proceedings and his family’s future is unclear.”

El País: “Migrants in Chicago after Trump raids: ‘We will continue working, but we are afraid’”

“Bonifacio, who arrived in Chicago 34 years ago with his wife and two young daughters, is now considering returning to Mexico. “I couldn’t go when my parents died because if I left the U.S., I wouldn’t be able to re-enter. But after building a life here, what’s left for us? Living in fear? Hiding? We pay taxes, contribute to the economy, we consume… I don’t have any criminal record, at most a fine for running a red light, which I’ve already paid, but to Trump, we are all criminals,” says Bonifacio, describing the first phase of the deportation operation, which targets illegal immigrants with criminal records — less than 4% of the total. “For him [Trump], being undocumented automatically makes you a criminal, so we are all potential targets.”

Hechinger Report: “1 in 5 child care workers is an immigrant. Trump’s deportations and raids have many terrified”

“In northern California, Adriana, a 27-year-old who emigrated from Mexico two years ago said she wants to start working, and recently was offered a job with a large company. But first she needs to find child care for her 3-month-old, and she worries about being separated from her baby by immigration officials. “I am scared, especially because it sounds like they’ll be able to come into my place of work,” she said through an interpreter. “I worry about leaving my child alone.”

“In Albuquerque, Ana directs a child care program that serves 50 local families, most of whom are American citizens. Ana left Mexico in 2020 with her husband and young son when violence ramped up in their home state of Sinaloa, and now worries she could be deported. That kind of worry is shared by her staff: Three of her 14 staff members have stopped coming to work, afraid of immigration raids.”

“Elida Cruz, like many other child care providers, has been trying to educate immigrant families about their rights by sharing resources and handing out “red cards” that advise people on what to do if they are approached by immigration officers. In addition to worrying about the effects on families and children, she worries what will happen if those families leave. “Financially, it would be devastation of my business,” she said. “I would literally close. It would leave me without any clients, no children at all,” she added. “Our businesses are just gonna collapse, because we all depend on the field workers.”

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The Immigration Hub is a national organization dedicated to advancing fair and just immigration policies through strategic leadership, innovative communications strategies, legislative advocacy and collaborative partnerships.