Trump brutality against children rivals his first term
Rachel Rutter for Common Dreams
 |
| (Photo by Charly Triballeau/ AFP via Getty Images) |
“Ms. Rachel, can ICE take me?”
“What about my dad? Can they take my dad away?”
“I feel so angry about how ICE is grabbing people out of my
neighborhood.”
“I feel traumatized ever since ICE stole my sister.”
“I’m afraid to walk to school. I’m afraid to leave my
house.”
“I want my mom back.”
These are real questions and comments I’ve heard from the kids I work with at Project Libertad in recent days, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) terrorizes their communities daily. While newcomers have always faced higher rates of anxiety, depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and other mental health challenges than their US-born peers, the divide is becoming more apparent each day.
These conversations with
my kids represent a stark increase in fear and anxiety among immigrant
children—and it’s not just an anecdotal shift. The data are clear: The Trump
administration’s increasingly hostile immigration policies are irreversibly
harming children.
Pediatricians Susan Kressly and Michelle Barnes warn of the lifelong impact these policies have on
children’s development and health into adulthood:
Witnessing harm to others and living in constant fear is traumatic to all children in the community. These stressors disrupt brain development and have long-term negative effects on the health and well-being of impacted children. Ultimately, the cumulative effects make these communities less healthy.
Similarly, nonprofit newsroom CalMatters documents strained mental health among schoolchildren across California after a summer of widespread, aggressive ICE raids and warns of the long-term harm to children:
Experts say these raids and their aftermath may also have
long-term consequences. Constant vigilance and worry puts children at greater
risk of developing chronic anxiety and depression. Those who are separated from
a parent face a host of social and emotional challenges.
A 2025 study in the Children and Youth Services
Review showed that childhood exposure to “severe immigration
enforcement”—which includes not just deportation, but also things like fear or
arrest—is “significantly associated” with having anxiety as a young adult. The
study’s authors call for “reforming immigration policies that unnecessarily
harm members of families… and encourages social workers and allied
professionals to recognize exposure to enforcement as a traumatic
experience...”
A new report in Psychiatry Online highlights the long-term,
generational trauma caused by immigration enforcement and calls for the mental
health community to not only improve treatment for immigrant youth and
families, but also to join advocacy efforts in support of their immigrant
patients.
Another recent study out of Florida from the from the National Bureau
of Economic Research shows a 22% increase in student absences since January, a
direct result of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement
there. The study blames fears of deportation and family separation for the
decrease in school attendance. That same study showed a decrease in students’ test scores linked to
immigration enforcement.
The trauma of mass deportation also impacts US-born children of immigrant parents, who live in
constant fear of being separated from their parents. For many, that nightmare
has now become a reality. CNN identified over 100 US citizen children who
were left behind after a parent was deported, ranging in age from babies to
teens.
The research is clear; there is no debate to be had: US
immigration policy is hurting children. All that’s left to do is decide what
type of society we want to be. Are we a society that cares about the well-being
of children? It’s a yes or no question. There’s no “but” or “if” or “only
certain children” or “they should’ve come here legally” (don’t even get me
started—you can read more on that faulty argument here). We either care about human rights—or we don’t.
James Baldwin wrote in The Nation in a
1980 essay:
The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.
His words ring truer today than ever before. If you care
about children; if you say you’re “pro-life;” if you consider yourself a good
or moral person: The children are ours. They are yours. And history will hold
you responsible for how you did (or did not) protect them.
Rachel Rutter, Esq., is the founder and executive director of Project Libertad, a nonprofit providing holistic legal and social services to immigrant youth. She was named a Top 5 CNN Hero in 2024 and a 2025 WHYY Good Souls Honoree for her leadership in supporting vulnerable immigrant communities.
