Trump Immigration Crackdown Causes Severe Trauma in Children, Experts Warn Senators
As the Trump administration continues its aggressive immigration enforcement policies, communities nationwide are grappling with consequences that extend far beyond detention and deportation statistics. A profound and disturbing impact is being felt by children, who are experiencing high levels of stress and trauma directly resulting from these federal actions.
The Psychological Toll on Young Minds
Dr. Lisa Fortuna, a clinical psychologist specializing in immigrant and refugee mental health, explained the developmental dangers children face. "Children experience policy and the environment that we create for them through the lens of safety, which is essential for their development," Fortuna stated during a Senate Judiciary Committee forum on March 17, 2026. "When children feel that their parents, homes, schools or communities are unsafe, their brains and their bodies respond with fear. And when that fear becomes chronic, it can shape emotional development, learning and health for many years to come. For a lifetime, potentially."
Fortuna was among several experts and community members who testified before senators about how President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement has affected children from infancy through age 17. These young people are showing symptoms of severe stress resulting from either direct detention or witnessing friends and family members being taken away.
Horrific Conditions in Detention Centers
Federal immigration agents arrested more than 3,800 children between January and October 2025, according to data from the Immigrants' Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School. Approximately 1,700 of these children were held at family detention centers, including the widely criticized facility in Dilley, Texas.
"Dilley is a hellhole. It's a prison for babies, toddlers and children," declared Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants' Rights Clinic, during her testimony. Mukherjee has represented 68 children and parents detained at Dilley, where she reported families finding live worms and bugs in their meals and lacking sufficient drinking water.
According to Mukherjee's testimony:
- More than 900 children have been detained past the 20-day legal limit for children accompanied by parents
- Her 18-month-old client, Amalia Arrieta-Valero, nearly died of respiratory distress during a 57-day detention period
- A 9-year-old with severe autism was detained for 85 days after being taken with his mother while en route to pick up his medication
The attorney described particularly disturbing incidents, including a 5-year-old Russian child of political dissidents who attempted suicide while detained for over 120 days. "One night their mother heard a strange sound coming from Alexander's bed," Mukherjee recounted. "She went to check on him and found that he had managed to pull the drawstring out of his sweatpants, put it around his neck, and he was pulling it tightly – believing at the age of 5 that it would be better to die than remain in detention."
Trauma Extends Beyond Detention Facilities
The psychological harm from immigration enforcement isn't confined to detention centers. Children in cities experiencing major Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, such as Chicago and Minneapolis, are dealing with stress from watching loved ones being violently taken while fearing for their own safety.
High school seniors Samia Mahmoud from Minneapolis and Lia Lopez from Chicago told senators they now carry their passports whenever they leave home. "For months, people in our community were afraid to speak and afraid to leave their homes," said Lia, who helped organize a massive anti-ICE student walkout in Chicago's Hispanic neighborhoods on October 28, 2025. "The school hallways were left empty because kids didn't want to risk the safety of their own families."
First-grade teacher Maria Heavener described how immigration agents put her students' lives at risk by throwing tear gas near Funston Elementary School in Chicago. "First we heard helicopters, then horns and whistles and sirens," Heavener recalled of the October 3 raid. "Students were brought in from recess, just narrowly saving them from inhaling the chemicals. Windows were closed, and we were in a soft lockdown."
Heavener noted that school counselors have since observed an increase in behavioral health referrals, with one of her 6-year-old students experiencing a panic attack in class. "He worried that his family members would be taken because they have dark skin, even though they are citizens from Puerto Rico," she explained.
Citizenship Provides No Protection from Fear
Since the administration's immigration operations began, numerous reports have emerged of agents attacking, detaining, and attempting to deport U.S. citizens. This pattern has left children feeling hypervigilant and fearful regardless of their citizenship status.
"Fear is spreading beyond immigrant families into entirely U.S. citizen families," Fortuna emphasized. "Children who are citizens and whose parents are citizens are expressing fear that they or their loved ones could be taken away simply because they are perceived as immigrants because of the color of their skin, and that they belong to communities that have become the focus of enforcement."
Lia Lopez, who is a U.S. citizen, shared a personal experience: "My own friend had to watch her cousin and uncle be thrown to the ground by ICE agents, with a knee pressed on her cousin's neck while he yelled that he was a citizen." She added, "I should be preparing for prom, graduation and worrying about what college I want to attend, and studying for finals. Instead, I find myself worrying whether the color of my skin or the language that my parents speak would determine if I belong in this country."
Calls for Protection and Alternatives to Detention
Senators listening to the testimony acknowledged the trauma affecting children exposed to the administration's immigration crackdown and inquired about potential safeguards. When asked whether protections could be implemented within detention centers, Mukherjee insisted that detention should never be an option for children.
"Alternatives to detention programs are far more cost-effective and humane than detaining children," she argued. "Protecting children from needless cruelty is not an enormous ask, it is what our humanity demands of us."
The White House has repeatedly violated the 1997 Flores Settlement, a binding agreement intended to protect children during immigration enforcement. The administration attempted to discard the agreement before a federal court temporarily halted the effort.
Heavener read a letter from a sixth-grade student at her school that captured the emotional impact: "Babies and kids are too little to be going through this. Kids need liberty. I feel broken as my community is falling apart. In my opinion, I think they should give us our freedom. People came here to have a better life, and this is the life they got. It's so unfair."
As youth like Lia and Samia plan to continue organizing against federal immigration enforcement beyond high school, and teachers assume greater protective roles, the psychological consequences for America's children continue to mount with each enforcement action.
