Children in immigrant families across the United States are facing mounting anxiety, disrupted healthcare and worsening financial insecurity as President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown separates families and deters parents from seeking help, campaigners and clinicians have warned.
In Oxnard, California, Norma Gómez arrived at a neighbour’s flat with food, nappies, baby wipes and clothes after immigration agents arrested the parents of a six-year-old girl and her baby brother outside their home.
“Are you the person who’s going to bring my mom back?” the girl asked her.
Gómez, a project manager with the Mixteco Indigena Community Organising Project, could offer only a reassurance she knew she could not fulfil. “We’re working on that,” she told the child.
The episode has become emblematic of the pressure facing children in mixed-status families, where some relatives are US citizens or lawful residents while others lack immigration status. Advocates say raids and the threat of deportation are affecting children even when they themselves have the right to remain in the country.
An estimated 205,000 children had at least one parent detained by immigration authorities by April, according to an analysis cited by researchers. The figure is expected to have risen since then.
Separation can leave children without a parent to care for them, while relatives and neighbours scramble to provide food, housing and medical support. Some children have been left to look after younger siblings themselves.
But families do not have to experience detention directly to feel its effects. Parents worried about being stopped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, have avoided taking children to school, visiting doctors and enrolling them in health and nutrition programmes.
A survey by the Urban Institute found that 21 per cent of adults across immigrant and non-immigrant families knew of an ICE raid or other immigration-enforcement activity in their local area during 2025. Among those who reported local enforcement activity, 46 per cent feared that they or a family member could be approached by immigration authorities. ([urban.org](https://www.urban.org/research/publication/immigration-enforcement-affected-both-immigrant-and-nonimmigrant-families))
The anxiety has spread to families made up entirely of US citizens. Children from immigrant backgrounds have reported increased emotional distress, bullying at school and fears of being racially profiled, even where they and their parents are citizens or legal residents.
About one in four children in the US lives with at least one immigrant parent, and most were born in the country. That means policies aimed at undocumented adults are affecting a large population of American children.
“This type of stress can have long-term developmental harm and can really inhibit their ability to do well in school, to have good health outcomes, and to grow into thriving, stable adults,” said Wendy Cervantes, director of immigration and immigrant families at the Center for Law and Social Policy.
Immigration enforcement and children’s health
Doctors and therapists say they are seeing more children with anxiety linked to fears that a parent may be taken away. Kimberly McNally, a paediatrician at a health centre in Inglewood, Los Angeles, said she was repeatedly referring children of all ages for mental-health support.
At some nurseries, children have arrived carrying an extra bag in case their parents fail to collect them, according to Liza Davis, an advocacy director at the Children’s Partnership.
In Oxnard, a 13-year-old boy identified as Emmanuel becomes anxious whenever his father leaves to work as a farm labourer. His mother said he repeatedly asks whether his father will return and what would happen to him if both parents were detained.
Families are also struggling to meet basic needs. Research by the Urban Institute found that, among immigrant families with children, food insecurity was the most commonly reported hardship, followed by unmet medical care because of cost and difficulties paying medical bills. Nearly one in five adults in those families said they had avoided non-cash benefits such as Medicaid or food assistance because of concerns about their immigration status. ([urban.org](https://www.urban.org/research/publication/shifting-immigration-policies-jeopardize-immigrant-families-children))
The Trump administration and Republican lawmakers have restricted eligibility for some health and food-support programmes. New public-charge rules have also raised fears that using benefits could affect an immigrant’s prospects of obtaining a green card, prompting some families to withdraw children from safety-net healthcare.
The White House has defended the wider crackdown as a way to protect American jobs and housing, reduce pressure on public finances and remove criminals. A spokesperson, Lauren Bis, did not directly address concerns about long-term harm to children, instead repeating the administration’s criticism of Joe Biden’s border policies and alleged child trafficking.
The administration’s position on birthright citizenship has also shifted through the courts. The Supreme Court ruled on June 30, 2026, that Trump’s original attempt to deny citizenship to children born to undocumented migrants or temporary visitors conflicted with federal law and the Fourteenth Amendment. A subsequent executive order signed on August 6 dealt with narrower categories, including children whose parents are foreign-government employees or who are alleged to have used fraudulent birth arrangements. ([supremecourt.gov](https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25-365_new_5if6.pdf))
Researchers have linked detention, deportation and the fear of enforcement with emotional trauma, housing instability, hunger and higher school-dropout rates among both immigrant and US-born children. Childhood trauma can also contribute to longer-term health problems, including depression, cardiovascular disease and learning difficulties.
Some young people have responded by taking on adult responsibilities. Children have gone shopping, escorted younger siblings to school and warned neighbours when they see immigration agents in their communities.
In Ventura County, university student Giselle Gonzalez recalled children riding through a neighbourhood on bicycles, shouting “La migra! La migra! Don’t come out!” after seeing agents arrest factory workers and gardeners on their way to work.
Community groups, churches and healthcare providers have responded with food deliveries, free therapy, escorted journeys to school and emergency childcare plans. At the Venice Family Clinic in Los Angeles, case workers help parents decide who would care for their children if they were detained, while some families seek advice on whether it is safe to enrol US-born children in Medicaid.
Advocates say the support can only soften the effects of the policy. They argue that keeping families together while immigration cases are resolved would protect children without ending enforcement.
“I’m really concerned about how long it’s going to take for us as a country to address all of the harm that’s happening to this generation of kids,” Cervantes said.
