With the crackdown on immigration, it’s hard to find childcare in California

from Carolyn JonesCalMatters

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On a recent weekday morning in Los Angeles, a young mother dropped off her 2-year-old and 4-year-old at a child care center located at a neighbor’s home. It was the 2-year-old’s birthday, so she brought a treat for the staff and kids, too: a red velvet cake themed around Cars, the kid’s favorite.

She then went to her job as an office cleaner. The babysitter provider never saw her again.

“She was picked up,” said the provider, Adriana, who asked to be identified only by her first name because, despite being a legal resident of the U.S., she fears wrongful deportation. She also asked not to name the mother and children. “The kids were saying, ‘Where’s mom? Where’s mom?’ It was difficult for us suppliers to explain. It was heartbreaking.”

The Trump administration’s sweeping crackdown on immigrants has taken a particularly heavy toll on the child care industry—for families and providers alike. in California, almost 40% some of the workforce is foreign-born, and more than a million parents—immigrant and otherwise—rely on childcare providers to get to work.

Absentees and empty classrooms

Several recent reports have found that since Trump tightened immigration crackdowns, child care centers have lost staff—immigrants afraid to come to work—as well as immigrant parents afraid to leave their children for fear of being arrested and separated from their children.

A studyfrom the Center for Child Care Employment Research at the University of California, Berkeley, found that the effects are wide-ranging.

“The Administration’s policies targeting immigrant populations not only harm the immigrant (early childhood education) workforce, but also have the potential to destabilize the already fragile education and training system upon which immigrant children, families, and education professionals rely,” the authors wrote.

The loss of personnel and revenue is there affected all familiesnot just immigrants, because it means the already tight child care market has shrunk even more, according to New America, a left-leaning Washington, D.C.-based think tank

“Aggressive immigration enforcement has already led to closures, empty classrooms and absenteeism at day care centers in some communities,” according to a report from the American Immigration Council, a research and advocacy organization.

“Bigger than we can imagine”

California is home to about 1.7 million babies and toddlers, the majority of whom spend at least some time in child care while their parents work. Some are enrolled in licensed day care centers, some have nannies, and others have informal arrangements with neighbors or family members.

The tightening of the childcare industry is an added burden on families who are already juggling the demands of work and home life. Childcare is expensive and hard to find in California—immigration crackdowns have made it even more difficult.

“The impact, especially on women, is greater than we can imagine,” said Patricia Lozano, executive director of Early Edge California, an early childhood education advocacy group.

But children can suffer the most, she said. Not only do some miss regular childcare providers, but those with immigrant parents may experience stress at home and disruption to their routine.

“Kids benefit from going to daycare. It’s a healthy and safe place for them,” Lozano said.

Lozano’s group encourages immigrant families to make a plan for their children in case their parent is arrested and to notify the child care provider. The group also reminds child care providers that they should not allow immigration officials into a child care center unless the agents have a signed court order. Early Edge California and other groups published a website, All about safe schoolswhich offers guidance for schools and child care centers on how to help immigrant families and LGBTQ students. In addition, the Service Employees International Union, which represents more than 30,000 child care providers in California, also provides resources for immigrants.

“Know your rights, have a plan, be prepared,” Lozano said. “And talk to your kids about it in a way they can understand.”

Locked doors, drawn blinds

In Alameda County, where 34 percent of the population is foreign-born, the crackdown on immigration has had a noticeable effect on families and child care providers, even though the county has not seen significant immigration enforcement compared to other regions, said Kim Johnson, CEO of BANANAS, a child care and family resource nonprofit in Oakland.

Some child care providers avoid public places, such as parks and playgrounds, while some immigrant families have left playgroups or kept their children home from day care when immigration agents were spotted in the neighborhood, Johnson said.

At one playgroup in East Oakland, organizers began locking the door and closing the blinds to make families feel safe. In another playgroup, located in a library, staff helped families create safety plans in case immigration agents arrived.

The Bananas organized a monthly diaper drive in a parking lot that regularly attracted 200 families. Fewer people started showing up after Trump took office, Johnson said, so the group now holds the giveaway several times a month, drawing smaller crowds, and moved the event indoors so families couldn’t see each other from the street.

“People try to stay under the radar when they can,” Johnson said. “We’re doing what we can to help people because so many of these families don’t have a voice. And especially the children don’t have a voice.”

“They target everyone”

Adriana, a child care provider in Los Angeles, has been in the child care business for 23 years. She takes care of about a dozen children in her home and also raises her own four children. On the day of the 2-year-old’s Cars birthday, Adriana called the children’s grandmother after the mother did not arrive to pick them up.

Alarmed, the grandmother unsuccessfully tried to contact the children’s mother, then brought the children to her home. Eventually, the family learned what had happened: the children’s parents and their uncle had been arrested and deported to Colombia. After a few weeks, the grandmother and children also moved to Colombia so that the family could be united.

Meanwhile, Adriana started carrying her passport everywhere she went. She also began locking both gates to her house, not answering the front door unless she knew who was calling, and working with parents — even those with legal status — to create backup plans in case they were arrested.

“I’m here legally, but they’re targeting everybody,” she said. “I’m just scared. What if my kids are at school and I can’t call? I try not to let it get to me, but it’s always in the back of my mind.”

She often feels frustrated and helpless, but she tries to create a safe, welcoming environment for the children in her care so they can focus on having fun — and find some relief from the anxiety they might be feeling at home.

“It’s sad. (Immigration agents) are targeting hard-working people, not criminals,” she said. “People who are just trying to make ends meet for their families. But my job is to take care of the kids. So we try not to put that fear on the kids.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.