CLASP Releases Reports on Impact of Anti-Immigrant Policies and Rhetoric on Children

By Julie Walker, NLIHC Project Manager, Opportunity Starts at Home  

The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), an Opportunity Starts at Home (OSAH) Roundtable member, released two reports, “Even the Playground Isn’t Safe: How Immigration Policies are Harming Our Youngest Children” and “Caregiving in Crisis: How Immigration Policies are Undermining Early Care and Education Programs,” which offer insights into the threatening impact anti-immigrant policies have on immigrant families, communities, job sectors, and local and state economies. The reports draw from focus groups conducted with 56 at-risk immigrant parents and family caregivers of children ages six and under, and interviews with 67 childcare and early education providers, Women Infants & Children (WIC) staff, home visitors, health care workers, and community advocates in seven states. The reports detail the impact of anti-immigrant policies, arrests, and deportations on early childhood development, immigrant families’ access to public benefits, enrollment drops in early care and education programs, and rising burnout among providers. The reports also highlight unstable federal funding for early childhood programs like HeadStart and WIC, and how this funding instability exacerbates existing economic stressors and the rising cost of living. Both reports call on state and federal policymakers to support young children, their families, and early care and education professionals. 

“Even the Playground Isn’t Safe” focuses on the fear and uncertainty immigrant parents and their children are experiencing with increased immigration enforcement. Parents shared how the environment of fear and isolation affects their daily lives, access to programs and support, and their physical and mental health. Parents also expressed concern about how anxiety and isolation are impacting their children, and their fears about family separation. “Caregiving in Crisis” details how the administration’s policies and executive orders have destabilized the early education and childcare sector. While the work of early education and childcare providers is critical to the greater economy and the physical, mental, and emotional health of young children and their families, providers shared that they feel compelled to do more with fewer resources while also navigating increased stress and burnout. Many providers have parents, friends, or employees who have been arrested, detained, or deported, and arrests have occurred near their facilities.  

The reports call on federal and state policymakers to enact policies that protect immigrant families, policies to mitigate enforcement harm on children, and measures to protect personal data of immigrant families. The authors also call for policymakers to promote and fund coordination and collaboration across childcare and early education and immigrant-serving organizations through grant opportunities. While not mentioned in the reports, NLIHC urges HUD to withdraw the proposed mixed-status rule to protect the housing stability of families with mixed immigration statuses in certain HUD programs. If finalized and implemented, the rule would require mixed-status families in certain HUD programs to choose between remaining together and losing their housing assistance.  

Read the reports here.