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.

Why This Matters

Heightened immigration enforcement policies have disrupted the way many children and families experience and navigate school. How schools respond to this uncertain environment can influence families’ experiences and students’ well-being.

Key Takeaways

In interviews, parents made clear that heightened immigration enforcement has changed everyday life for their families and children. In Chicago and Charlotte, the threat of parents or US-citizen children encountering ICE has shaped children’s educational experiences, mental health, and sense of safety, with effects present long after the end of targeted enforcement operations. Enforcement-related fear has disrupted school attendance, transportation routines, after-school and recreational activities, and students’ ability to feel safe at school. These issues created barriers to learning that have translated into poorer emotional well-being and lower academic performance.

The study’s key findings are as follows:

• Nearly half of parents reported that their children had expressed concern about going to school because of the threat of enforcement, perceiving risks to both their parents and themselves, even as US citizens.
• Nearly half of parents reported that their children had stayed home from school for at least a few days because of concerns about immigration enforcement activity.
• Over half of parents reported concerns about sending their children to school or accompanying them to school because of the risk of either a child or parent encountering ICE on the way. Nearly half of parents changed school transportation routines to reduce their families’ exposure to enforcement risk.
• Over half of parents described the psychological strain of the enforcement environment affecting their children’s academic performance.
• Nearly all parents reported reducing their own time in public spaces. Many also reported not taking or allowing their children to go to parks or participate in after-school activities or sports.
• Parents in Chicago were more likely than those in Charlotte to describe their children’s schools having some kind of supportive strategy, from information sharing to help with transportation and counseling.
• Parents recommended that schools strengthen communication to address their concerns and share available supports, help families navigate transportation challenges and offer remote learning when they cannot safely travel, provide emotional support and counseling services, and ensure a more consistent response across schools.

How We Did It

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.