Trump's Cruel Immigration Policy Is Devastating Children |
“Ms. Rachel, can ICE take me?”
“What about my dad? Can they take my dad away?”
“I feel so angry about how ICE is grabbing people out of my neighborhood.”
“I feel traumatized ever since ICE stole my sister.”
“I’m afraid to walk to school. I’m afraid to leave my house.”
“I want my mom back.”
A military-style ICE raid occurs at a grocery story in West Norriton, Pennsylvania on July 16, 2025. How would you feel if you found this waiting for you on your next trip to buy groceries?
These are real questions and comments I’ve heard from the kids I work with at Project Libertad in recent days, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) terrorizes their communities daily. While newcomers have always faced higher rates of anxiety, depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and other mental health challenges than their US-born peers, the divide is becoming more apparent each day. These conversations with my kids represent a stark increase in fear and anxiety among immigrant children—and it’s not just an anecdotal shift. The data are clear: The Trump administration’s increasingly hostile immigration policies are irreversibly harming children.
Pediatricians Susan Kressly and Michelle Barnes warn of the lifelong impact these policies have on children’s development and health into adulthood:
Similarly, nonprofit newsroom CalMatters documents strained mental health among schoolchildren across California after a summer of widespread, aggressive ICE raids and warns of the long-term harm to children:
A 2025 study in the Children and Youth Services Review showed that childhood exposure to “severe immigration enforcement”—which includes not just deportation, but also things like fear or arrest—is “significantly associated” with having anxiety as a young adult. The study’s authors call for “reforming immigration policies that unnecessarily harm members of families… and encourages social workers and allied professionals to recognize exposure to enforcement as a traumatic experience...”
A new report in........