Warren, Duckworth, Quigley, 40+ Lawmakers Sound Alarm on Trump's Immigration Agenda Hurting Families' Child Care Access, Raising Costs

Warren, Duckworth, Quigley, 40+ Lawmakers Sound Alarm on Trump's Immigration Agenda Hurting Families' Child Care Access, Raising Costs

Trump's admin making it harder for families to find and afford child care while slashing funding for child care in states

"The Trump Administration's policies risk eliminating a significant number of trained caregivers from an already strained system, reducing access to care and raising child care costs for American families"

"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"

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), along with Representative Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), led over 40 colleagues in pressing the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Administration for Children & Families (ACF) on how the Trump Administration's immigration policies are shrinking the child care workforce and driving up costs for American families. This letter comes amid reports of ICE activity at and around child care facilities and growing staffing shortages nationwide.

"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.

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 - in some places as high as 70 percent.

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 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests. 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 long-standing policy protecting "sensitive locations" from ICE raids, ICE 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 - as the child care sector loses both immigrant and U.S.-born workers. This - along with Trump administration efforts to slash federal support that makes child care more affordable - is an "attack on American families."

"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," wrote 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," continued the lawmakers.

The lawmakers requested that, by February 26, 2026, ACF 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.

Other signers include: 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.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Representatives Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), Greg Casar (D-Texas), Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.), Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), Herb Conaway (D-N.J.), Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.), Dwight Evans (D-Pa.), Jesús "Chuy" García (D-Ill.), Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), Bill Keating (D-Mass.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), George Latimer (D-N.Y.), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.), Kelly Morrison (D-Minn.), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), Mark Takano (D-Calif.), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), and Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.).

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