ICE Enforcement Rattles Immigrant Families and Child Care Providers, Report Finds

Children and Families Across Michigan Pay Highest Price for Harmful Immigration Policies

Two new reports examining the impact of federal immigration enforcement on parents, children and child care providers reveal a crisis unfolding in communities across Michigan. The Center for Law and Social Policy released findings Thursday after interviewing dozens of people last year across seven states including Michigan.

The research interviewed 56 immigrant parents of young children and 67 child care providers, early educators and advocates. The interviews took place from July through November with researchers documenting the real-time effects of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

"Children and their families across the country are paying the highest price for harmful immigration policies," said Kaelin Rapport, a policy analyst with CLASP. "And early care and education providers nationwide are being forced between a rock and a hard place, having to do more for their clients with fewer resources while being at risk themselves."

Last fall, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a father shortly after he dropped his daughter off at an Ann Arbor elementary school. Five months later, four people were detained near Ypsilanti schools. And this week, federal immigration agents arrested one person during a traffic stop near an Ann Arbor daycare.

Fear Spreads Through Communities

ICE arrests have surged throughout the country with 321,701 people being detained last year, up from 111,223 in 2024. Michigan is seeing similar trends with the average daily arrests jumping 247 percent from 2024 to 2025.

The Trump administration says it is focused on arresting the worst of the worst convicted criminals including sex offenders, murderers and gang members. But data obtained by the Deportation Data Project shows the vast majority of those arrested do not have criminal convictions.

The CLASP reports found that immigrant parents are scared to leave their homes and risk being detained, deported and separated from their children. They are taking drastic steps like not taking their kids to school, skipping trips to the grocery store and limiting doctor visits.

"We came here to improve our lives and eventually return home, but now we can barely work because we are constantly anxious," one Michigan parent who was not identified in the research told the investigators.

This heightened fear and anxiety is trickling down to children who are now afraid to play outside, lose sleep and fear losing their parents. Enrollment has dropped at some federally funded Head Start child care facilities in southeast Michigan.

Child Care Providers Become Safe Havens

The reports say this has also impacted early education and child care providers who are anxious about federal agents coming into facilities. Five of them told CLASP researchers that parents asked them to serve as temporary guardians in case they were detained or deported.

In Ypsilanti, Leysi Palacio-Mora runs Eden Bilingual Childcare Center located in Arbor Plaza, across from a trailer park where many immigrants live. She said she has witnessed a growing ICE presence around her center.

Palacio-Mora said she has developed protocols for what happens if agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement come to the site. Kids go to the back with staff while she goes out the front to try to confirm the agents identity and ask for a warrant. In case of an emergency, kids evacuate out the back to a nearby business.

"Imagine wrangling 20 babies out the back to get safe," she said.

Despite reassurances from federal officials, many are worried and are preparing. A local spokesman for ICE said it does not target schools or bus stops for enforcement actions aimed at arresting unauthorized immigrants.

Rumors and Realities

Concern in Ypsilanti reached a fever pitch late last month when rumors spread including through a Facebook post from the county sheriff that ICE had targeted parents at a bus stop. Another rumor circulated that ICE was at a child care facility in the city.

Attorneys for at least three of the four individuals detained that day have since confirmed the agents did not target the bus stop. And the child care facility owner said ICE was not at the center.

Word spreads when certain unmarked vehicles are seen consistently circling or parked in the area. In 2025, two parents enrolled in Palacio-Moras program were detained by ICE one at their home in the trailer park and another at an immigration appointment and eventually both families left the country.

"I didnt expect it to get this bad," said Palacio-Mora. "Some people were gonna be deported, I understand. But I didnt think it was gonna get to the point where Im looking at the parking lot, making sure there is no ICE because I have a family leaving with two kids and I know their background is what it is."

Data Shows Most Arrests Involve No Criminal Convictions

According to data ICE staff leaked to libertarian think tank Cato Institute, only 5 percent of the people ICE took into custody between October and November 2025 had a violent criminal conviction, 5 percent had an immigration conviction, 6 percent had a traffic conviction, and 73 percent had no convictions.

In response to questions about growing fears surrounding their enforcement actions, a local ICE spokesperson reiterated that the agency does not target schools or bus stop locations, and that those detained in Ypsilanti remain in ICE custody pending immigration proceedings and will receive due process.

Federal Officials Defend Enforcement

In response to questions nationally about ICE enforcement in places like child cares, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin has defended ICE activity across the board, insisting ICEs objective is to arrest violent criminals.

The administration has painted increasing deployment of ICE officers in cities like Minneapolis and escalating enforcement as being in the interest of public safety, though President Trump himself has recently called for a softer touch in immigration enforcement in response to public outcry over the ICE killings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.

Community Fear Remains Real

What is clear is that community fear over ICE enforcement is real. And in an era where previously guaranteed protections against immigration enforcement in sensitive places like child cares, schools and places of worship have been rolled back, no one feels immune child care providers in Ypsilanti say not a parent picking up their kid from preschool nor the kid themselves.

Palacio-Mora said she has consistently seen two unmarked vehicles circling or parked in the shared parking lot or across the street at Sam Club one Jeep Grand Cherokee and one pickup truck that the community believes to be ICE agents.

"It is just anxiety and paranoia," said Palacio-Mora. "We have to be on watch a lot more than usual."

Sources:

• https://www.mlive.com/news/2026/04/ice-enforcement-rattles-immigrant-families-and-child-care-providers-report-finds.html
• https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2026/02/06/ice-enforcement-child-cares-providers-prepare/88475027007/
• https://www.the74million.org/zero2eight/trumps-immigration-crackdown-is-harming-young-children-and-their-caregivers/
• https://www.michiganschildren.org/2026/02/09/michigan-can-enact-immigration-laws-to-protect-our-children-and-families-from-dangerous-immigration-enforcement-excesses/