The little girl stared up at Norma G\u00f3mez from the doorway of her neighbor\u2019s apartment, her sad, brown eyes suddenly flashing with hope.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you the person who\u2019s going to bring my mom back?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
G\u00f3mez struggled to find an answer. It was a December morning, and she\u2019d brought food, diapers, baby wipes, and clothes \u2014 items she hoped would help the 6-year-old girl, her baby brother, and the neighbor who had stepped in to care for them. The children were left alone after federal immigration agents arrested their parents outside their apartment in Oxnard, a mostly Latino agricultural community on the Southern California coast. But G\u00f3mez had no power to bring the parents back.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working on that,\u201d G\u00f3mez recalled telling the girl. In reality, she was at a loss for how to answer truthfully without upsetting her.<\/p>\n
As a project manager for a nonprofit that provides food assistance to immigrant families affected by Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, G\u00f3mez has witnessed the tumult and pain that have roiled the lives of millions of immigrant families<\/a> since President Donald Trump returned to office, with devastating consequences for children\u2019s health. They include an estimated 205,000 children<\/a> with at least one parent detained by immigration authorities through April, a number that has undoubtedly climbed since. Separation from parents harms children psychologically<\/a>. It destabilizes families, often leaving the remaining parent or caregiver scrambling to stay housed, buy food, and fulfill kids\u2019 medical needs. Some kids are left alone<\/a> to care for themselves.<\/p>\n Norma G\u00f3mez, a project manager with the Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project in Oxnard, California, provides food and basic supplies to family members caring for children with parents detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They\u2019ve included a stepfather caring for four girls; a 16-year-old caring for her younger siblings; and numerous aunts and uncles. (Karla Gachet for KFF Health News)<\/p>\n Many kids whose parents aren\u2019t detained are experiencing threats to their health and well-being too. Two children in the South died by suicide<\/a> in February 2025 after reportedly being bullied over their family\u2019s alleged immigration status.<\/p>\n Millions of children live in families losing access to medical care<\/a>, food<\/a>, tax credits<\/a>, and other supports as federal and<\/a> state governments<\/a> roll back eligibility for immigrants with and without legal status. Fear of federal enforcement has pushed parents to avoid taking kids to school<\/a>, going to the doctor<\/a>, and engaging in social activities<\/a>. Some have disenrolled from or avoided signing kids up for health and nutrition programs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Children from immigrant backgrounds are also living in fear<\/a>. They\u2019re experiencing more emotional distress<\/a>, increased bullying in school<\/a>, and anxiety about racial profiling by ICE<\/a>, even when they or their family members are citizens or legal residents.<\/p>\n Most of these children are American citizens. About 1 in 4 U.S.-born kids<\/a> have an immigrant parent, including around 4.6 million with a parent who lacks legal status.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really concerned about how long it\u2019s going to take for us as a country to address all of the harm that\u2019s happening to this generation of kids,\u201d said Wendy Cervantes, director of immigration and immigrant families at the Center for Law and Social Policy<\/a>. \u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Curbing Public Benefits<\/strong><\/p>\n Trump has made cracking down on immigrants \u2014 including the children of immigrants \u2014 a priority since his second term began last year. On Inauguration Day, he issued an executive order<\/a> purporting to end birthright citizenship for kids born to parents without legal status or in the country on temporary visas, an attempt ultimately blocked by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n His administration, with the approval of Republicans in Congress, has poured billions of dollars<\/a> into immigration enforcement, detaining the parents of an estimated 145,000 U.S. citizen children as of April, and, according to an analysis by nonprofit newsroom The Marshall Project, over 6,200 children<\/a>. It\u2019s sought to rescind temporary protected status<\/a>, or TPS, for over 1 million immigrants, tens of thousands of whom have U.S. citizen children, and stalled renewals<\/a> in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which includes the parents of about 300,000 citizen children<\/a>.<\/p>\n White House officials say the immigration crackdown benefits American citizens<\/a> by freeing up resources such as jobs and housing, reducing pressure on public coffers, expelling criminals, and restoring integrity<\/a> to the immigration system. (Studies have shown that mass deportations harm U.S. workers<\/a>.) Trump and other Republican leaders have argued that birthright citizenship encourages unauthorized immigration<\/a> and \u201cbirth tourism<\/a>,\u201d and that TPS has allowed immigrants from \u201cdangerous, third-world countries<\/a>\u201d to remain in the United States indefinitely under what is supposed to be a temporary program.<\/p>\n In a statement, White House spokesperson Lauren Bis did not directly address whether the administration is concerned about long-term harm to children and increased healthcare costs because of its immigration policies. Instead, she repeated past White House criticisms that President Joe Biden\u2019s immigration policies allowed children to be trafficked across the U.S. border.<\/p>\n \u201cThe real story is the psychiatric impact on the tens of thousands of children who were smuggled across the border \u2014 many by human and sex traffickers,\u201d she wrote in an email.<\/p>\n G\u00f3mez at a monthly food distribution organized by the Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project in Santa Paula. She says she has delivered food to families caring for children with one or both parents detained by immigration authorities. (Karla Gachet for KFF Health News)<\/p>\n Only 39% of Americans approve of Trump\u2019s handling of immigration, according to a recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.<\/p>\n Stephen Miller, the chief architect of Trump\u2019s immigration policies, has accused the children of immigrants of draining public resources and perpetuating problems from their parents\u2019 home countries. Research, however, shows that immigrants earn more<\/a> and do better<\/a> the longer they live in the United States and that they and their children assimilate rapidly<\/a>. <\/a><\/a>Data also shows they rely less on welfare<\/a> than native-born Americans.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the great lie of mass migration,\u201d Miller wrote<\/a> on the social platform X in November. \u201cYou are not just importing individuals. You are importing societies. No magic transformation occurs when failed states cross borders. At scale, migrants and their descendants recreate the conditions, and terrors, of their broken homelands.\u201d<\/p>\n The Republican tax-and-spending law enacted last summer curbs immigrant eligibility for health and food assistance programs. And this July, the administration issued new \u201cpublic charge\u201d rules that give immigration officers broad discretion to deny green cards to lawfully present immigrants if they or family members have used public benefit programs, a move that could result in over a million<\/a> U.S. citizen children disenrolling from safety net healthcare programs.<\/p>\n Together but Afraid<\/strong><\/p>\n Separation from parents is traumatic for children<\/a> and can lead to lifelong health problems<\/a>, including anxiety, depression, cardiovascular disease, and learning difficulties. Children separated from their parents at the border during the first Trump administration were found to exhibit lasting trauma<\/a>. Researchers have also tied deportations and detentions of immigrant parents \u2014 as well as the threat of them \u2014 to widespread emotional trauma<\/a>, higher school dropout rates<\/a>, housing instability<\/a>, and hunger<\/a> among both immigrant and U.S.-born children.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also costly to society. A 2024 study<\/a> by federal researchers estimated that health conditions related to childhood trauma accounted for $292 billion in healthcare spending in 2021 alone, including by taxpayer-funded programs such as Medicaid and Medicare.<\/p>\n Emmanuel, a 13-year-old in Oxnard, gets anxious every time his dad goes to work as a farm laborer, his mother, Ana, said. He asks her for reassurance that his father will return, and about what would happen to him if his parents got detained. He tries to hurry Ana up when they\u2019re out in public, worried that ICE could suddenly appear. KFF Health News is not using their full names because they fear deportation.<\/p>\n Doctors and therapists interviewed by KFF Health News said they have observed a notable increase in mental health problems, especially anxiety, in children from immigrant families. Kimberly McNally, a pediatrician at Venice Family Clinic\u2019s Inglewood South La Brea Health Center, said she\u2019s regularly referring children of all ages for mental health services related to fears that their parents will be taken away. <\/a>At daycares, kids have been showing up with an extra bag in case their parents don\u2019t pick them up, said Liza Davis, advocacy director for Children in Immigrant Families at The Children\u2019s Partnership, which works with a coalition of early childhood educators.<\/p>\n Sometimes, the distress leads young people to take extreme actions. In June, 19-year-old Eliel Jos\u00e9 took his own life<\/a> after his father was deported from the Atlanta area to Mexico, according to Univision.<\/p>\n Rosie Harrison, executive director of Grow Initiative GA, a community organization that serves low-income families, said she\u2019s received calls over the past year from immigrant parents seeking help for suicidal and depressed kids. Their situations are often made worse because many lack health insurance and can\u2019t afford to pay for therapy. That\u2019s often because parents have lost jobs that came with health insurance due to worksite raids or because of eligibility changes imposed by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m concerned about the families that are going to be burying their child,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cI\u2019m concerned that we are going to miss out on having an amazing person do amazing things for our community, for our country, because they took their life.\u201d<\/p>\n Strength Under Pressure<\/strong><\/p>\n Many children are showing resilience, though.<\/p>\n In a role reversal, some children have become their parents\u2019 protectors. They go grocery shopping and take their younger siblings to school so that their parents don\u2019t have to leave the house.<\/p>\n G\u00f3mez (center), a project manager with the Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project, stands next to volunteer Ezequiel Alonso (left), as they prepare to distribute food and school supplies to families in Santa Paula. Many families are struggling due to the Trump administration\u2019s immigration policies. (Karla Gachet for KFF Health News)<\/p>\n Giselle Gonzalez, a university student and volunteer with the immigrant protection network VC Defensa in Ventura County, California, said she\u2019ll never forget the morning last summer when she woke up to the sound of kids on bicycles pedaling through her immigrant-heavy neighborhood in Thousand Oaks, yelling \u201cLa migra! La migra! Don\u2019t come out!\u201d They\u2019d spotted ICE agents grabbing factory workers and gardeners on their way to work, she said.<\/p>\n Neighbors, community groups, health providers, and others have also stepped up<\/a> in a variety of ways<\/a> to support children and families affected by immigration enforcement. They deliver groceries<\/a>, provide free therapy<\/a>, walk kids to school<\/a>, and help parents create emergency childcare plans<\/a> in case they get detained or deported.<\/p>\n Ultimately, more humane immigration policies and enforcement tactics will be required to end the harm being done to children, academic experts and advocates said.<\/p>\n Researchers at Arizona State University<\/a> point to a pilot called the Family Case Management Program<\/a> as a model for keeping families together while also enforcing immigration laws. Launched in January 2016 under President Barack Obama, the program allowed families seeking asylum to remain in the community while awaiting resolution of their cases. Through a case manager, they received support in meeting the obligations of their immigration cases and preparing for deportation if needed. The program, which proved successful<\/a> and cost-effective, was terminated by the first Trump administration.<\/p>\n At Venice Family Clinic in Los Angeles, case manager Mabel Alavez sees the pressures facing families who are still together but worried they could be separated. Many of the people are parents or grandparents who have been in the U.S. for decades. Some are afraid to take their children to school, the park, or the beach. They ask whether it\u2019s safe to enroll their U.S.-born kids in Medicaid. She helps families who are facing eviction because they\u2019re afraid to go to work and can no longer afford rent. She often helps them create plans for who will look after their children if they get detained.<\/p>\n Raised in an immigrant family herself, Alavez knows how challenging it can be for kids who are first-generation Americans to navigate growing up, going to school, and finding a sense of belonging in a country their parents aren\u2019t from.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to imagine how they could possibly do that in addition to what\u2019s going on now,\u201d she said. \u201cI do feel like there will be a big impact on them. What that might look like, I\u2019m not exactly sure.\u201d<\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n This article<\/a> first appeared on KFF Health News<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The little girl stared up at Norma G\u00f3mez from the doorway of her neighbor\u2019s apartment, her sad, brown eyes suddenly flashing with hope. \u201cAre you the person who\u2019s going to bring my mom back?\u201d she asked. G\u00f3mez struggled to find an answer. It was a December morning, and she\u2019d brought food, diapers, baby wipes, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}