Resources for Child-Family Separation and Immigration Enforcement in the United States
These resources are for the January 14 webinar, "Child-Family Separation and Immigration Enforcement in the United States."
Resources for Families and Communities
- UnidosUS, Know Your Rights and Rapid Response Resource Guide, December 2025.
- Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) & National Immigration Law Center, Know Your Rights: Five Things Parents Detained by ICE Should Know (Spanish Version), November 2025.
- Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), A Toolkit for Professionals Serving Unaccompanied and Separated Children, August 25, 2025.
- Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Protecting Children in Schools Against Immigration Enforcement: What Schools and Parents Can Do, July 28, 2025.
- Appleseed Network, Deportation Planning Manual, June 2025.
- American Public Human Services Association (APHSA), Community Roadmap for Child Well-Being - Decision-Making Guide: Supporting children affected by immigration enforcement, May 22, 2025.
- Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC), Detained or Deported: What About My Children? Parental Rights Toolkit, March 31, 2025.
- Children Thrive Action Network, Toolkit: Protecting Immigrant Families from Deportation, January 21, 2025.
- International Social Service, USA, Permanency Planning Services.
- Florida State University College of Medicine, Center for Child Stress and Health, Immigrant Children with Traumatic Separation: Information for Professionals.
U.S. Government
- Office of Refugee Resettlement, Administration of Children and Families, Data, 2026.
- U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Emergency Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order, Preliminary Injunction and/or stay of en masse truncation of family reunification parole, December 29, 2025.
- Office of Refugee Resettlement, Administration of Children and Families, ORR Unaccompanied Alien Children Bureau Policy Guide: Section 5: Responding to Inquiries from the Media, December 19, 2025.
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), DHS Ends the Abuse of the Humanitarian Parole Process and Terminates Family Reunification Parole Programs, December 12, 2025.
- U.S. House of Representatives, Upholding Protections for Unaccompanied Children Act, December 3, 2025.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Refugee Resettlement, Unaccompanied Refugee Minors, September 30, 2025.
- Office of Refugee Resettlement, Administration of Children and Families, ORR Unaccompanied Alien Children Bureau Policy Guide: Section 2: Summary of the Safe and Timely Release Process, August 8, 2025.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Refugee Resettlement, Unaccompanied Alien Children, July, 2025.
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Parental Rights Directive 11064.4: Detention and Removal of Alien Parents and Legal Guardians of Minor Children, July 2, 2025.
- State of California Department of Justice, Attorney General Bonta Leads Multistate Coalition in Opposing HHS Rollback of Protections for Unaccompanied Children, May 23, 2025.
- Democracy Forward and the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) filed a class action complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, May 8, 2025.
- Office of Refugee Resettlement, Administration of Children and Families, Field Guidance #27 – DNA Testing Expansion, March 15, 2025.
- Office of Refugee Resettlement, Administration of Children and Families, Field Guidance #26 – Fingerprint Background Checks and Acceptable Supporting Documentation for a Family Reunification Application, February 14, 2025.
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Detained Parents & Legal Guardians FAQ, October, 2022.
- U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, The Trump Administration’s Family Separation Policy: Trauma, Destruction, and Chaos, October 2020.
Press Releases
- Kids in Need of Defense, "How the Administration’s Enforcement Policies Are Separating Families and Harming Unaccompanied Children," January 13, 2026.
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, "Special Pastoral Message on Immigration," video, 2025.
- Physicians for Human Rights & Women’s Refugee Commission, “In Parents’ Own Words: Documenting the Stories of Separated Parents in Honduras", December 18, 2025.
- American Academy of Pediatrics, “AAP leaders: Children are bearing consequences of immigration enforcement actions”, November 19, 2025.
- United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, Special Message on Immigration, November 12, 2025.
- American Immigration Council, “A Look Back at the Family Separation Policy”, October 30, 2025.
- Acacia Center for Justice, “Dismantling Protections: How ORR Policy Changes Trap Children in Extended Detention”, September 29, 2025.
- National Center for Youth Law, “The Unraveling of ORR: A Quick and Calculated Undoing of a System Intended to Protect Children”, September 29, 2025.
- Women’s Refugee Commission, “Family Separation 2.0: More Complex but Just as Harmful”, September 25, 2025.
- The Young Center, “An American Toddler in Foster Care and a Mom in Ice Detention”, August 6, 2025.
- Kids in Need of Defense, “Family Separation 2.0: KIND Urges Immediate Administration Action to Halt Its Return to this National Nightmare”, June 10, 2025.
- Brookings, “What will deportations mean for the child welfare system?”, April 22, 2025.
- Human Rights Watch, “We Need to Take Away Children. Zero Accountability Six Years After “Zero Tolerance”, December 16, 2024.
- Southern Poverty Law Center, “Family Separation - A Timeline”, March 23, 2022.
- U.S. Committee on Refugees and Immigrants, “How the Family Separation Policy Harmed Children and Families”, December, 2021.
Media
- Cindy Hernandez and Mary Norkol, “Trump deportation campaign will leave lasting mark on kids of detained parents”, Chicago Sun-Times, January 2, 2026.
- Michael Barbaro, “Family Separation 2.0: An Update”, The New York Times, December 30, 2025.
- Jasmine Garsd and Leila Fadel, “How Trump's mass deportation efforts have affected families this year”, NPR, December 25, 2025.
- Gisela Salomon, “Trump administration separates thousands of migrant families in the U.S.”, Associated Press, December 11, 2025.
- Luis Ferré-Sadurní, Julie Turkewitz and Isayen Herrera, “Deported and Desperate to Be Reunited With Their Children”, The New York Times, November 25, 2025.
- Mica Rosenberg, Mario Ariza, McKenzie Funk, Jeff Ernsthausen, and Gabriel Sandoval, “ICE Sent 600 Immigrant Kids to Detention in Federal Shelters This Year. It’s a New Record”, ProPublica, November 24, 2025.
- Miriam Jordan, “She Was Deported in Error. Her Child Was Left Behind”, The New York Times, November 14, 2025.
- Maanvi Singh, “Trump revives family separation amid drive to deport millions: ‘a tactic to punish’", The Guardian, October 2, 2025.
- Blake Ellis, Melanie Hicken, Anna-Maja Rappard and Kyung Lah, "‘Are Mom and Dad not coming home?’:American kids left stranded when ICE takes their parents”, CNN, September 23, 2025.
- Maria Sacchetti, “Trump’s mass deportations bringing a new wave of family separations”, The Washington Post, September 17, 2025.
- Regina Garcia Cano, “Deported Venezuelan mothers ask Melania Trump for help reuniting with their children”, PBS, September 5, 2025.
- Miriam Jordan, “Judge Rejects Trump’s Attempt to End Standards of Care for Detained Migrant Children,” The New York Times, August 15, 2025.
- Priscilla Alvarez, “Federal law enforcement to begin interviewing unaccompanied migrant children in government custody,” CNN, August 8, 2025.
- Jess Bidgood and Hamed Aleaziz, “The Return of Family Separation”, The New York Times, August 6, 2025
- Hamed Aleaziz, “Inside Trump’s New Tactic to Separate Immigrant Families”, The New York Times, August 5, 2025.
- Marsha Griffin, Alan Shapiro and Julie M. Linton, “Family separation 2.0 compounds the trauma on children of immigrants”, LA Times, July 1, 2025.
- Priscilla Alvarez, “Trump administration takes hundreds of migrant children out of their homes, into government custody,” CNN, June 4, 2025.
- Dhruv Mehrotra, “The U.S. is storing migrant children’s DNA in a criminal database,” The Wired, May 29, 2025.
- Miriam Jordan and Christina Jewett, “Checks on Migrant Children by Homeland Security Agents Stir Fear,” The New York Times, May 28, 2025.
- Maanvi Singh, “Trump administration seeks to end basic rights and protections for child immigrants in its custody,” The Guardian, May 23, 2025.
- Silvia Foster-Frau, “As Trump rushes to deport migrants, many worry children’s rights are being violated,” The Washington Post, May 5, 2025.
- Michael Barbaro, “Family Separation 2.0”, The New York Times, May 2, 2025.
- Alan Feuer, “2-Year-Old U.S. Citizen Deported ‘With No Meaningful Process,' Judge Suspects,” The New York Times, April 25, 2025.
- Miriam Jordan, “He Was 5 When Border Agents Took Him From His Father. He Hasn’t Forgotten,” The New York Times, October 28, 2024.
- Hanna Rosin, “A new kind of family separation”, The Atlantic, July 24, 2024.
- Caitlin Dickerson, “The Secret History of U.S. government family separation policy”, The Atlantic, August 7, 2022.
Relevant U.S. Federal Lawsuit
- “Ms. L v ICE” (Last updated September 26, 2024) The lawsuit cites violations of the Constitution’s due process clause, federal law protecting asylum seekers, and of the government’s own directive to keep families intact. "Ms. L" and her daughter were reunited in March 2018, though the national class-action lawsuit in this case continues.
State-specific
- State-by-state Listing of Specific Resources in the 50 States and the District of Columbia.
- Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families - Family Separation Rapid Response Team; Resources for families
- Maryland, Montgomery County - Family Preparedness; Standby Guardianship Project; Probono Referral
- Arizona, Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project - A guide to prepare for the possibility of being detained, deported or separated from your children / (Spanish Version)
- California Courts - Resources for children and families; Form: Consent for minor child to live with non-parent; Form: Caregiver's Authorization Affidavit
- Texas - Child Custody & Support
- New York - Emergency Plan for Deportation; NY Courts: Guardianship of a child; NY Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs: Family Separation Resources
References to Key Global Policy and Guidance Documents
- 1989: UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
- 1990: UN International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICRMW)
- 1994: UNHCR – Refugee Children: Guidelines on Protection and Care
- 1997: UNHCR – Guidelines on Policies and Procedures in Dealing with Unaccompanied Children Seeking Asylum
- 1999: UNHCR – UNHCR Revised Guidelines on Applicable Criteria and Standards relating to the Detention of Asylum Seekers
- 2004: International Committee of the Red Cross Inter-Agency Guiding Principles on Unaccompanied and Separated Children
- 2005: UN Committee on the Rights of the Child –Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children Outside their Country of Origin, General comment No. 6
- 2008: UNHCR Guidelines on Determining the Best Interests of the Child
- 2009: UNHCR Guidelines on International Protection No. 8 Child Asylum Claims
- 2009: UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children
- 2010: UNHCR – Study of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on challenges and best practices in the implementation of the international framework for the protection of the rights of the child in the context of migration
- 2011: UNHCR – Field Handbook for the Implementation of UNHCR Best Interests Determination (BID) Guidelines
- 2012: UN Committee on the Rights of the Child – Report of the 2012 Day of General Discussion: The rights of all children in the context of international migration
- 2013: UN Committee on the Rights of the Child General Comment No. 14
- 2014: UNHCR – Beyond detention: a global strategy to support governments to end the detention of asylum-seekers and refugees (2014-2019)
- 2016: UNGA – New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants
- 2017: The Alliance For Child Protection in Humanitarian Action Field Handbook and Toolkit on Unaccompanied and Separated Children
- 2017: OHCHR State obligations regarding the human rights of children in the context of international migration, General Comment No. 23
- 2018: UNGA – Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration
- 2019: UNGA – Status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child: Report of the Secretary-General
- 2019: UNGA – Resolution on the Rights of the Child
- 2018: UNICEF - Working Paper: Family Unity in the Context of Migration
- 2020: UNICEF / IOM Technical Note: Inclusion of Children in the Context of Migration into National Child Protection Systems
- 2022: UN Human Rights Council Resolution 49/20 on Rights of the Child and Family Reunification
- 2022: UN Human Rights Council - Rights of the Child and Family Reunification Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
- 2022: The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action - Guidance Note Primary Prevention of Family Separation
- 2022: IOM Information Note on the Protection of Migrant Children
- 2024: UNHCR Guidelines on International Legal Standards Relating to Family Reunification for Refugees and Other Beneficiaries of International Protection