Falling Through the Cracks: The Impact of Immigration Enforcement on Children Caught Up in the Child Welfare System

One of the many consequences of an aggressive immigration enforcement system is the separation of children, often U.S. citizens, from their unauthorized immigrant parents. U.S. immigration policies often fail to address the needs of millions of children whom they directly impact. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, approximately 5.5 million children in the United States live in mixed-legal status families with at least one parent who is an unauthorized immigrant. These children are at risk of being separated from a parent at any time. This paper, Falling Through the Cracks: The Impact of Immigration Enforcement on Children Caught Up in the Child Welfare System, outlines the challenges that federal and state immigration enforcement measures pose to child well-being and family unity, including the implications for children and families involved in the child welfare system. 

A 2007 Urban Institute study found that for every two adults apprehended in a worksite raid at least one child is impacted. Studies confirm that even a short-term separation from a parent, or the fear of separation, can have significant consequences for children including poor educational outcomes, weakened economic security and mistrust of law enforcement. 

It is estimated that in 2011 approximately 5,100 children with a detained or deported parent were in the public child welfare system. If deportations continued at those levels, over the next five years an additional 15,000 children in the child welfare system could be at risk of permanent separation from their detained or deported parent.

The paper recommends that, in the face of continued immigration enforcement, preventing the unnecessary breaking apart of families requires a coordinated set of solutions across the different systems that interact with those families. 

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