Immigrant families are navigating profound challenges to their economic stability, children’s education, and overall health and well-being as the fear of immigration enforcement continues. Their experiences have been shaped by the current administration’s heightened immigration enforcement policies that have reverberated across the country.

Policy shifts have permitted immigration enforcement activities in formerly protected areas such as schools, hospitals, and places of worship. Other changes have resulted in the arrest of long-term residents with no criminal background, extended detention, and violations of due process. Some localities experienced intense surge enforcement operations. In the wake of these policy decisions, communities have felt widespread fear and anxiety about the threat of immigration enforcement in daily life. Though high-visibility enforcement operations in targeted cities eased by spring 2026, quieter tactics continue across the US, and the risk of enforcement remains a constant concern for many families.

About the Study

The Urban research team conducted 34 interviews with parents in Latino mixed-status families in Chicago and Charlotte in mid-2026, months after high-visibility enforcement operations in those cities subsided but as enforcement threats persisted. Parents were recruited with the assistance of community-based organizations.

All parents were living in households that included family members who were US citizens and one or more family members who were undocumented, most commonly the parent or their partner. The parents represented the experiences of 92 children, 82 of whom were US citizens. Nearly all parents had minor children under age 18 living with them. Most parents and their partners had lived in the US for decades.

Interviews examined adults’ and children’s experiences living in the enforcement environment, including impacts on economic stability, children’s education, and family physical and mental health; changes in daily routines; access to legal assistance and family emergency preparedness; as well as practices and supports that have been helpful to immigrant families and are still needed to manage ongoing challenges, particularly actions taken by community members, community-based organizations, schools, health care providers, and local policymakers.

Across the interviews, the threat of an encounter with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that could separate an undocumented parent from their family shaped the daily lives of all family members, including US-citizen children.

The study examined the following key topics:

• mothers’ experiences as they absorb and manage risks of heightened immigration enforcement for their children and other family members
• role of schools as immigrant families navigate the enforcement environment
• emerging strategies local stakeholders across key sectors took to support immigrant families

This project was funded by the Foundation for Child Development and the American Civil Liberties Union.