The Valley Chronicle - Padilla, Schiff, 40+ Lawmakers Sound Alarm on How Trump’s Immigration Agenda is Hurting Workers and Families’ Child Care Access, Raising Cos

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Alex Padilla, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) joined U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Representative Mike Quigley (D-Ill.-05), and over 40 other lawmakers in raising serious concerns about how the Trump Administration’s cruel immigration policies are shrinking the child care workforce and driving up costs for American families.

The letter to the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Administration for Children & Families (ACF) comes amid reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity at and around child care facilities and worsening staffing shortages nationwide.

The American economy heavily depends on immigrant workers in the child care sector, making up approximately 20 percent of the U.S. child care workforce and totaling more than 282,000 workers. In parts of Florida, Texas, New York, and California, that share is even higher — nearly 40% in California, which has almost half a million foreign-born early childhood educators. Over 1 million Californian parents — both immigrants and U.S. citizens alike — depend on reliable access to child care so they can continue working.

“These policies — paired with the Administration’s recent moves to slash federal support that made child care more affordable — are an attack on American families,” wrote the lawmakers.

Since Trump began his indiscriminate mass deportation campaign in Los Angeles last June, student and staff absences have risen at California child care centers. Additionally, Republican influencers have harassed workers at Somali-run day care centers in San Diego, including at their homes, confronting operators about unsubstantiated claims of alleged fraud.

Over the last year, President Trump has enacted a cruel and aggressive immigration agenda, including eliminating legal immigration pathways, stopping lawful immigration processes, and ramping up indiscriminate ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) raids. Those arrested include critical child care providers taking care of children in their communities.

The Trump Administration’s immigration policies have significantly impacted immigrant child care workers and the families whose children they care for. Following the Administration’s decision to revoke a longstanding policy protecting “sensitive locations” from ICE and CBP raids, immigration enforcement activities are now occurring at child care facilities, with agents apprehending and detaining employees in front of children and their families. Other child care workers have been stripped of their work permits and forced to leave their jobs.

These actions are pushing providers to leave the child care field, and programs have seen sharp staffing declines. Some estimates say the Administration’s immigration agenda could reduce the child care workforce by 15 percent — over half a million workers. This, along with Trump Administration efforts to slash federal support that makes child care more affordable, is an “attack on American families,” the lawmakers emphasized.

“Rather than making child care more affordable, President Trump has done the opposite by withholding billions of dollars in federal funding from child care providers, and rescinding protections meant to ensure that child care providers can stay afloat,” continued the lawmakers.

“As Members of Congress committed to supporting American families and maintaining an affordable, reliable child care system, we seek to ensure that federal enforcement practices are not unintentionally driving up costs, destabilizing child care programs, or undermining the safe, supportive environments that children need to thrive,” added the lawmakers.

The lawmakers requested that, by February 26, 2026, HHS share any information available regarding the impact of immigration operations on child care staffing shortages, including data on staffing shortages, enrollment declines, projected cost increases, and how coordination with DHS on enforcement actions may disrupt federally funded child care programs.

In addition to Padilla, Schiff, Warren, Duckworth, and Quigley, the letter was also signed by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Angus King (I-Maine), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), as well as Representatives Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.-03), Becca Balint (D-Vt.-AL), Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.-01), Greg Casar (D-Texas-35), Judy Chu (D-Calif.-28), Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.-31), Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.-09), Herb Conaway (D-N.J.-03), Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas-30), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.-04), Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.-03), Dwight Evans (D-Pa.-03), Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.-04), Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas-29), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.-51), Bill Keating (D-Mass.-09), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.-08), George Latimer (D-N.Y.-16), Summer Lee (D-Pa.-12), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.-08), Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.-07), Kelly Morrison (D-Minn.-03), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.-06), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.-AL), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.-02), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.-03), Mark Takano (D-Calif.-39), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.-20), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.-25), and Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.-24).

Earlier this month, Padilla and Schiff joined Warren, Alsobrooks, Quigley, and 56 other lawmakers in demanding answers from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on the impact of children’s exposure to ICE and CBP’s escalating violence in American communities, which threatens to leave them with lasting physical and psychological trauma.