By Suma Setty, Kaelin Rapport, and Emily Rodriguez

The people who educate, care, and advocate for the nation’s youngest children are directly feeling the effects of federal immigration policies. “Caregiving in Crisis” details the findings from interviews with people who serve immigrant families with children ages five and younger in early care and education and related settings.

CLASP researchers conducted semi-structured interviews between June and December 2025 with 67 center and home-based early educators and child care providers, WIC staff, home visitors, health care workers, and community advocates in Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Texas, and Washington. While the majority of those interviewed work in early care and education, all of the interviewees provide vital services for and/or advocate on behalf of families.

Many people of those interviewed have parents, friends, or employees who have been arrested, detained, or deported. These arrests have happened just steps from providers; they have experienced uncertainty and threats to their livelihoods; and they have witnessed firsthand how young children are struggling with the stress of the adults who care for them. Their work undergirds the economy and the healthy development of over half of all children ages five and younger in the U.S. It is critical to the greater economy and the mental, physical, and emotional health of young children and their families that policymakers and funders take action to support early care and education services as well as the people who care for our youngest children.

A companion report, “Even the Playground Isn’t Safe: How Immigration Policies are Harming Our Youngest Children,” focuses on findings from eight focus groups held in the same states with immigrant parents of children ages six and under. Together, these reports paint a comprehensive picture of the fear and terror that children in immigrant families, child care and early education providers, and the larger community are all living with.

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