Swept Up: Immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare System

On May 11th, 2025 – Mother’s Day – masked officers smashed the windows of a family’s car on their way to church and dragged the father out in front of his U.S. citizen wife and three children. Weeks later, ICE detained a family of six at an immigration courthouse, zip-tying the mother and at least one of her children. Across the country, children – citizens and non-citizens alike – are being swept up in an immigration blitz that is inflicting trauma and chaos on families. Tragically, millions of children are at risk of falling through the cracks after their parents are deported and entering the child welfare system—a system that, while intended to protect children, can often compound trauma.

Funders are invited to join Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR) to explore recent research on the intersection between immigration enforcement and the child welfare system, and to hear about the legal rights and options available to children of varying immigration legal statuses, including those that are citizens. In addition to issue-area experts, you will hear from funders that are investing in strategies to reunite children with their families, and to keep children in immigrant families from getting drawn into the child welfare system in the first place.

This webinar is part of GCIR’s 1 in 4 Immigrant Children and Families Project. To learn more, visit the group page.

Speakers

• Neha Desai, Managing Director of Children’s Human Rights & Dignity, National Center for Youth Law
• Matthew Lisiecki, Senior Research & Policy Analyst, Center for Migration Studies
• Nadine Toppozada, Managing Director, Systems Improvement, Casey Family Programs

Moderator

• Laura Speer, Director of Strategy, The Annie E. Casey Foundation

Co-Hosts: