Community Based Providers Offer a Lifeline to Families with Young Children Deterred from Accessing Care Due to Increased Immigration Enforcement

Every child deserves to grow up feeling safe, supported, and surrounded by people they trust. Their mental health and overall wellbeing depend on it. But in many communities across the country, that promise is slipping away.

Children’s health is shaped by their social, emotional, and family wellbeing. Safe neighborhoods, nurturing relationships, and supportive learning environments are the foundation of healthy development in early childhood. A new report by researchers at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) finds that the mass deportation and hostile immigration enforcement actions happening across the country are inflicting profound emotional and mental trauma on children. Those who are immigrants themselves, or who live in mixed-status families, are experiencing the deepest harm.

This reality is especially stark in California. Nearly half of the state’s nine million children are part of immigrant families, and almost all of them are U.S. citizens. Additionally, 1 in 5 live in mixed-status households. For the state’s youngest children, from birth to age five, 40 percent of children have at least one foreign-born parent. The expansion of hostile immigrant enforcement actions, including in once designated safe spaces like hospitals and schools, has altered the new daily reality for these families. When immigration agents show up where families live, learn, or seek care, it disrupts not just their day, but the sense of safety and stability children need to grow up healthy and thrive.

It is well known that persistent stress and anxiety can significantly impact the healthy development of infants and toddlers. This includes both stress and anxiety directly felt by the child, and the impacts on the child of having caregivers living with significant stress. The current heightened immigration enforcement environment has put children and their families in a constant state of fear and uncertainty, threatening the healthy and stable environment needed to support positive long-term development. As the UCR report highlights, even the threat of separating young children from their parents can create significant emotional damage for children of immigrant and mixed status households. This emotional damage can manifest itself in missed school days, skipped health care appointments, disengagement in the classroom, greater emotional distress, and isolation from key social networks.

Over the last five years, California has made a concerted effort to support the mental health of children and youth across the state. In 2021, California launched the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI). CYBHI is a $4.7 billion, multi-agency initiative focused on promoting social and emotional wellbeing, preventing behavioral health challenges, and providing equitable and timely access to services for emerging and existing behavioral health needs. While these investments have expanded services and trained more mental health providers, California still lacks a sufficient mental health workforce trained to support infants and young children . This shortage is even more acute for low income families with Medi-Cal coverage. With approximately 90 percent of a child’s brain development occurring before age five, it is critical this population gets the care it needs.

Faced with limited options and growing fear that accessing traditional healthcare services may lead to immigration intervention, many families have turned to their trusted community-based providers for support and resources during these times. Trusted community providers, such as early care providers, community health workers, promotoras, and home visitors, are essential resources for families with young children. By meeting families where they are, both figuratively and literally, these community providers are able to help families navigate the changing healthcare landscape and provide trustworthy, culturally competent support while mitigating families’ fears of receiving care in public settings like hospitals.

What We Can Do

The harms detailed in the UCR report are not inevitable — they are the result of policy choices, and they can be addressed through meaningful policy solutions and real investment. Advocates, community partners, and state leaders all have a role to play in rebuilding a sense of safety and stability for young children in immigrant families.

1. Strengthen safety protections in early learning settings
   Early care and education programs must be equipped with clear guidance, training, and resources to keep families safe during immigration enforcement actions. This includes state-issued guidance for providers, strong safe spaces policies, and ongoing support for staff which require dedicated state funding to implement effectively.
2. Visit allinforsafeschools.org for up-to-date resources, policy guidance, and tools designed to support safe and welcoming early care and education spaces.
3. Ensure children can access early care and education regardless of immigration status
   No child should lose access to early learning because of their or their family’s immigration status. California can lead by strengthening legal protections, removing administrative barriers, and investing in outreach efforts that reach immigrant families where they are.
4. For a deeper look at policies advancing safe schools in California — including 2025 legislation strengthening protections in ECE settings — see this Safe Schools Policy Explainer.
5. Invest in mental health supports for young children and their caregivers
   Expanding access to early childhood mental health services, especially those that are trauma-informed and culturally and linguistically aligned, is essential for helping children cope with chronic fear and instability. This includes increased state budget commitments for early childhood mental health, community-based services, and provider training. We can also educate and engage county mental health agencies on the importance of investing in early intervention for young children as they develop their budgets for the state’s Proposition 1 Behavioral Health Services Act, which includes requirements to set aside a certain percentage of funds for children and youth services.
6. For information on young children’s social-emotional development, explore this Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health fact sheet.
7. Fund community-based support networks
   Families need trusted places to turn during moments of crisis. Community organizations, educators, health providers, promotoras, and neighbors can help families build safety plans, connect to legal resources, and maintain supportive care networks, but only if the state invests in these community infrastructure systems rather than expecting them to operate without resources.

One important example is California’s Community Health Worker Services Medi-Cal benefit. To learn how it can be strengthened, see this CHW/P/R fact sheet.

California must invest in the guidance, mental health services, community infrastructure, and early education system that families depend on.

Together, we can create a California where all children, regardless of where they or their parents were born, can learn, grow, and thrive in safe and welcoming environments.