Vanessa Cárdenas: “Terrorizing Children and Creating Fear in Chicago & Across America is the Central Feature” of Trump Admin’s Deportation Campaign

Access online version of this press release HERE

Washington, DC — Among the goals of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign and crackdowns against blue cities is the purposeful spreading of fear. In Chicago, as the Sun-Times reports, “fear and tension” are palpable and some Chicago families are worrying about sending children to school “out of fear for their safety or for them being picked up, whether… by mistake or not by mistake,” as reported by Chalkbeat Chicago.

In Los Angeles, residents are stating “We All Thought the Raids Were Over’: Fears Return for Immigrants in L.A.” (per the New York Times). And the story is much the same in Boston, with the Globe reporting “ICE crackdown in Massachusetts has immigrant communities ‘paranoid’ as agents begin to target work vans.”

Within these costs on real people and communities is the reality that children are bearing much of the fears and traumas, as a new EdSource op-ed by professor Laura Enriquez, “How California schools can support students, families fearing ICE raids” reminds us.

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:

“Terrorizing children and creating fear in Chicago and across America is the central feature of the Trump Administration’s scorched-earth mass deportation campaign. Children are missing school, afraid to leave their homes. Parents are having to make plans in case they are disappeared. And teachers are having to be trained in safety protocols should they encounter ICE. This is the high cost of Trump’s mass deportation agenda—not just economic devastation, but educational chaos and psychological scarring. The worst part? It’s by design.”

Below find key excerpts from recent coverage of harms to children by the Trump immigration agenda

• Yesterday, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) launched a new “Learning Without Fear” campaign to call attention to mass deportation’s harms to students and classrooms

• Watch the America’s Voice video highlighting the fear in classrooms this Back to School season.

• And watch a recording of a Back to School virtual event hosted by America’s Voice on how the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda is harming kids and changing educators’ focus this back-to-school season. The event featured leaders from AFT, NEA, a Washington, DC-based child psychologist and Alberto Carvalho, Superintendent, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), who said:

“Schools must always be safe havens for learning, free from fear or disruption. Immigration enforcement activities have no place on or around our campuses, as they create an atmosphere of anxiety that harms every student, regardless of background.”