Trump鈥檚 Deportation Plans Threaten Millions of Families. Who Is Protecting Them?
Nearly six million kids fear family separation as Donald Trump鈥檚 administration prepares for the largest deportation operation in American history.
By Marianna McMurdock | January 17, 2025Updated Jan 22: As of Jan 21, the Department of Homeland Security has its 鈥渟ensitive locations鈥 policy, allowing immigration raids where children gather including schools, hospitals and churches.
Parents showing their children where passports and other important legal documents are hidden at home.
Mothers and fathers signing affidavits outlining who their childrens鈥 caregiver would be.
Guardians making arrangements with schools for dismissal in the event they have been picked up by federal agents in a deportation sweep.
These are the daily conversations and heartbreaking realities mixed-status families 鈥 where not all kids, parents or grandparents hold American citizenship or legal status to reside in the U.S. 鈥 are rehearsing in case children come home to an empty house.

With Donald Trump鈥檚 border czar Tom Homan pledging to operate the largest deportation operation in American history in just days, parents, advocates, lawyers, and educators nationwide are working nonstop to protect and prepare families and school staff.
鈥淪tudents can鈥檛 focus on learning when they鈥檙e worried about whether their parents will come home at the end of the day, when they see themselves dehumanized in the press, or when representatives of the federal government come to their city to say, 鈥榊ou鈥檒l be first in line for removal,鈥欌 Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates said last month. The union has rolled out a 鈥淪anctuary Training Series鈥 for staff and parents on how to protect kids from federal raids.
社区黑料 interviewed dozens of people working with some of the nearly six million families facing ongoing dehumanization and to understand how deportation plans are affecting schools and students.
School leaders throughout the country have begun sharing : Ensuring bus drivers and front office staff are trained on legal policies; providing simple scripts for what to say when interacting with federal law enforcement; explaining what鈥檚 next if the worst happens and families .

Educators, like healthcare workers, are sharing tips on for interacting with federal agents. Immigrant coalitions and parents are leading “” trainings in schools. Some schools are increasing mental health offerings as widespread increases along with anti-immigrant hate.
鈥淲e need to let you know, if you are a student who is undocumented or a family who is undocumented, we will take care of you,” former teacher and board member Scott Esserman vowed at a Denver school board meeting in . “That’s our responsibility.鈥
When pressed on what the Trump administration’s plans would mean for millions of families with young children, officials have advised deported parents to take their American citizen children . If their home countries won鈥檛 accept them, the administration has reportedly where they will be permanently displaced 鈥 places where they may have no cultural, linguistic connection to.
Immigration enforcement operations will start in , Illinois and , Colorado, just outside of Denver, Trump administration officials have said.
In response, school districts including , , , , and have reiterated resolutions passed during Trump鈥檚 first term and are training staff on how to protect families鈥 privacy in any interactions with immigration enforcement.
, the nation鈥檚 largest, has a clear cut policy: If immigration enforcement officers do arrive at a school building, staff must keep them outside, notifying the districts鈥 legal counsel to first verify any warrants or subpoenas.
“Protecting immigrant students in and around school is not only moral 鈥 it’s the ,鈥 said Alejandra V谩zquez Baur, co-founder of the National Newcomer Network and fellow at The Century Foundation. Accessing free education, regardless of immigration status, has been protected as a constitutional right for 42 years.
And like hospitals, schools, afterschool programs and chldrens鈥 bus stops have long been considered 鈥渟ensitive locations,鈥 protected from federal immigration raids without appropriate approval. Dozens of families sought refuge in while immigration arrests spread during the last Trump administration.
Today, advocates are preparing for a different ballgame. The Trump administration鈥檚 include scrapping the Homeland Security鈥檚 sensitive locations policy, a move legal experts expect would be challenged.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 want people with contagious diseases too scared to go to the hospital or children going uneducated because of poorly considered deportation policies,鈥 Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union told .
While the legal logistical challenges to operate mass deportations are predictable and being planned for 鈥 Texas, for instance, has pledged for deportation centers – immigration law scholar Hiroshi Motomura expects a wildcard: the public鈥檚 political will.
鈥淲hen you have the rhetoric and focus on the wall and on the border, it’s easy to stick with this idea that immigration law is to protect 鈥榰s鈥 from 鈥榯hem,鈥欌 Motomura told 社区黑料.
鈥淏ut it really is different when you start depriving employees of their families, and kids see their classmates deported,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t completely shifts the political vulnerability and what’s going on here.鈥

社区黑料 spoke with school staff, advocates and lawyers in states with the highest volume of mixed-status families about what they expect and how they鈥檙e preparing for the Trump administration鈥檚 mass deportation plans:

Priscilla Monico Mar铆n
Executive Director of the New Jersey Consortium for Immigrant Children
Reality set in for Mar铆n and her New Jersey-based team over the summer: Trump鈥檚 second presidency was a distinct possibility. To reach as many immigrant youth as quickly as they could, they started brainstorming, identifying a new district partner, Jersey City Public Schools.
Mar铆n felt 鈥渃alled鈥 to support families like her own when anti-immigrant rhetoric resurged, swapping her career as a bilingual teacher to become an immigration lawyer.
鈥淣o one wants to be defined by your hardest day,鈥 she said, adding too often undocumented students are not defined by their 鈥渉umor, their curiosity, or their strength,鈥 but instead their status and trauma.
Her team leads workshops and shares resources for classes of multilingual learners, so that they can secure immigration case support, access to social services and help others work past barriers to school enrollment.
The current situation has created a sense of urgency to what Mar铆n and her team do.
After she leaves the schools, older students start calling their hotline for assistance to secure visas and more stable immigration statuses, and to ask, 鈥淚鈥檓 undocumented. How do I enroll in healthcare?,鈥 while some navigate the web of government bureaucracy as the only bilingual person in their families.

Prerna Arora
Columbia Teachers College Faculty, New York
鈥 a professor who studies the mental and physical health impacts of immigration on children 鈥 is witnessing a culture of fear and pain that鈥檚 limiting learning as fears of deportation loom.
Working with 100 immigrant youth and asylum seekers throughout New York City, she has seen more hesitance and skepticism to share their emails or names in recent months than ever before.
Many expressed feeling 鈥渦nderestimated鈥 People may expect them not to have any language skills or fewer than they have.鈥 Arora said. 鈥…A lot of them spoke up to say, 鈥榳e want people to know that we actually do want to try, we do care.鈥欌
In addition, several noted bias, hate and harassment from both children and adult K-12 school staff. 鈥淢aybe it’s a comment in passing that nobody realized how harmful it was.鈥 Students are especially hurt when teachers say nothing at all after an incident.
Particularly to curb absenteeism, Arora emphasized schools need to focus on providing several tiers of mental health supports, ranging from school-wide workshops to small group and individual counseling, and establishing a sense of safety so that 鈥減arents and kids feel like the school can be trusted.鈥

Miguel Bocanegra
Immigration Lawyer with Cornell University鈥檚 Path2Papers Program, California
A small team of lawyers have held over 500 free consultations since launching one year ago, quickly mobilizing to move as many working DACA recipients toward more permanent legal residency before the Supreme Court or Trump鈥檚 administration upends the program鈥檚 fate.
Their approach is 鈥渙ffensive as opposed to defensive 鈥 to assist people in getting visas, to move in a positive direction that would not keep them in permanent limbo,鈥 said Bocanegra, who has been practicing immigration law for over two decades.
Bocanegra anticipates the Supreme Court may put an end to DACA as soon as late 2025, though it . The Obama-era policy has enabled more than 700,000 鈥渄reamers鈥 brought to the country as children to attain temporary legal status and work authorization.
Today, he hosts confidential consultations with teachers and on campuses and over Zoom, helping them and their employers secure sponsorship and more permanent statuses like H-1B visas.
Roughly 82% of the people they鈥檝e worked with are eligible for more stable statuses via employment or humanitarian visas.
鈥淲e’re advising employers to educate themselves and make decisions one way or the other about whether they can move forward with these visa options while there鈥檚 still some time.鈥

Alejandra V谩zquez Baur
Co-founder of National Newcomer Network, New York
A former south Florida teacher who grew up in a mixed status household, V谩zquez Baur has witnessed generations of kids live with fears of deportation that often led to school absenteeism.
While the incoming administration鈥檚 agenda seems more willing to target families and threaten kids鈥 right to education, she urged school leaders to remember, 鈥渢he law is still the law, nothing has changed yet.鈥
The fear school staff may experience when encountering federal law enforcement is only mitigated by knowing what to do. Some have begun printing out and language that front office staff, bus drivers and security agents can use: 鈥淲e follow district policy and cannot provide any information without consulting legal counsel.鈥

Maribel Sainez
Aspire Public Schools鈥 Director of Advocacy & Community Engagement, California
Sainez, who also grew up in a mixed-status household, is urgently spreading a resource she recently learned of: , where families can report if they鈥檝e seen ICE agents, inquire about sightings in a given area, or get support after an interaction with the agency.
She and her charter network that serves many undocumented students are partnering with local organizations to offer Know Your Rights trainings, which include exercises for families on how to interact with federal agents.
鈥淚 constantly draw on my own lived experiences,鈥 said Sainez. 鈥… How can we counter that fear and panic and really promote a sense of solidarity, awareness, and power building?鈥
In Los Angeles, citizenship expert Motomura has analyzed decades of policy, and resistance to change it. He鈥檚 among thousands advocating for reforms to the immigration system, stuck in congressional limbo year after year.
鈥淭he world has changed, the economy has changed,鈥 Motomura said. 鈥淭he only way we’re going to get out of it is to make it not about how high the border wall is, but ask ourselves why there are 11 million people in the country who are without papers.鈥
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