An anti-ICE protest on January 30, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. | Mark Makela via Getty Images

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Many Americans were shocked and disturbed by the image of 5-year-old Liam Ramos, with his bright blue hat and Spider-Man backpack, being led away by ICE agents. The detention of the Minnesota preschooler was a reminder that, amid the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, the youngest Americans have felt some of the most profound effects.

At least 3,800 children, including 20 infants, were detained by immigration authorities last year. Many more live in fear that their loved ones could be deported or detained — about 4.4 million children born in the United States live with an undocumented immigrant parent.

Meanwhile, children of all immigration statuses have had friends disappear from their classrooms or have stayed inside at recess because of the threat of tear gas; they’ve seen masked men patrolling their neighborhoods and heard about a mother of three gunned down in the street.

The stress is taking its toll on kids. School districts in Minneapolis have reported drops in attendance as high as 40 percent after surges in ICE activity, with smaller reported declines in places like Chicago and Los Angeles during immigration operations. Even when they do come to school, “students are having a really hard time paying attention,” said Alejandra Vázquez Baur, co-founder of the National Newcomer Network, a coalition that works on behalf of immigrant students. “They’re afraid for themselves, or maybe they’re afraid for a parent or a sibling who could at any moment be picked up and they will never see them again.”

Primary care doctors are seeing more symptoms of anxiety, from stomachaches, to potty-training regressions, to fear of leaving a parent, even just to go to the next room for a vision test, said Razaan Bryne, a pediatrician at Children’s Minnesota health system.

It’s not just kids from immigrant families who are experiencing anxiety, Byrne said. “I am seeing it across the board with........

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