Since the Trump administration launched the big federal raids in June, thousands of immigrant parents — including those with U.S.-citizen children — have prepared documents to give custody to relatives or friends in case they are deported. The LA Times has collected testimony from tearful parents filling out these documents to ensure their children’s future in the United States. In California’s farming communities, fear has reached even those with green cards or citizenship, as the number of children living in fear of losing their parents grows.
Many parents have turned to legal rights organizations, either in person or through Zoom, for help in filling out the necessary forms to designate another adult-preferably a citizen or permanent resident-who can assume responsibility for their children should they be detained or deported.
An estimated 5.62 million U.S. children have at least one undocumented family member, and nearly 2 million of these are under the age of 6. More than half have no parent with legal status, according to a Brookings Institution report.
It is unclear how many parents were detained or deported during the recent raids. However, since 2018 about 60,000 parents of U.S. citizen children have been deported, according to data provided by ICE. There is no data available on what happened to their children, but according to Tara Watson-director of the Center for Economic Security and Opportunity at Brookings-children who are U.S. citizens tend to stay in the United States if at least one parent remains in the country.
TODEC, an organization founded in the 1980s by migrant farm workers, recommends that parents choose a person with U.S. citizenship or permanent residency as their guardian so as to avoid further risk. This is emphasized by Luz Gallegos, executive director of the organization.
Studies such as that of the Society for Community Research and Action, a division of the American Psychological Association, indicate that deportation of a parent can have serious repercussions on children’s mental health, including developmental problems, behavioral disorders, depression and a decline in school performance.
