On Friday May 2 Wendy Cervantes will be speaking at the 2025 Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) Biennial Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota for a panel titled, “The Role of Research in Immigration Advocacy: How Science Can Support the Well-Being of Immigrant Children.”
Find out more information by visiting srcd.org.
This statement can be attributed to Cemeré James, interim executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
Washington, D.C., March 21, 2025 – Yesterday, President Trump signed an executive order to follow other recent administrative actions meant to decimate the Department of Education (ED) under the veil of “returning power to states.” His action will disrupt the ability of schools to provide the learning opportunities students need. States already hold the primary responsibility and authority for education, while the ED manages and distributes funds, collects essential data, conducts valuable research, and ensures equity in access to public education. Closing ED will disproportionately harm students of color and children with disabilities, instill fear in immigrant students, and reverse decades of progress in enhancing civil rights protections for all students. This order is also consistent with the administration’s stated goal to undo the progress made through Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility efforts that improve and expand educational opportunities.
Closing the Department of Education (ED) will negatively impact students of all races and economic backgrounds. The department plays a crucial role in supporting and holding schools accountable to ensure children with disabilities receive the services they need to succeed, and that young children have access to high-quality early learning. ED also ensures that students receive an education free from harassment and intimidation, and that they are prepared to attend college, universities, and other post-secondary institutions. The withdrawal of federal funds from institutions that do not align with the political values of the Trump Administration will reduce access to education. Ultimately, these actions will deny young children and students from marginalized communities the same educational opportunities, support services, and protections as their peers.
Contrary to language in the Executive Order that ED has failed children, teachers, and families, the department has long defended students’ civil rights to equal education and ensured educational accessibility for students in every state. Eliminating ED deprives immigrant students, students of color, and students with disabilities of federal oversight to shield them from openly discriminatory state governments. Trump’s actions only serve the purpose of resegregating American education along the lines of race and class.
Executive orders are not laws. Trump’s attempt to enact his education policy agenda outside of existing legal parameters is unconstitutional. The order explicitly acknowledges that ED can’t be closed without the approval of Congress, which is an open admission that the administration is undertaking a shameless effort to violate the separation of powers doctrine upon which our government was founded. CLASP stands ready to fight for the educational rights of all students.
We call on federal and state policymakers to oppose these reckless actions and take steps to slow down and mitigate the harm while also supporting children, families, and educators at risk. In addition, we call on our partners in the education and children’s advocacy spaces to join the effort to push back against these harmful attacks, which are an affront to our collective goals to build a more just and equitable country.
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“It’s posturing to try to harm communities,” said Juan Carlos Gomez, an immigration and immigrant families senior policy analyst at the Center for Law and Social Policy (Clasp), of the memo. Undocumented immigrants have been ineligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), which is used by more than 42 million people, long before Trump’s first term, and even immigrants who are authorized to be in the US have to wait five years before applying.
This statement can be attributed to Cemeré James, interim executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
Washington, D.C., March 14, 2025 – The full-year continuing resolution (CR) passed today by Congress undermines the security, stability, and well-being of millions of workers, immigrants, families, and children throughout the country. It provides no guardrails to stop the administration from using funds for whatever purposes President Trump and Elon Musk deem necessary to further their own political agenda. This CR does nothing to improve the lives of low-income families and children struggling across the country.
While the CR does avoid a government shutdown, it increases military spending by $6 billion, allocates an additional $485 million for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and decreases nondefense spending by $13 billion. It also largely keeps spending levels the same as FY2024, at a time when inflation and costs are rising. This means that even though specific programs may not be targeted by line-item cuts, the current funding levels won’t go as far. For example, since federal housing vouchers won’t cover as many people, 32,000 people could face eviction.
Without safeguards specifying Congressional intent on how funds are spent, the administration could significantly cut or eliminate funding for programs that support housing assistance; public K-12 schools; Historically Black Colleges and Universities; maternal health; child care and early education; and postsecondary education. This undercuts Congress’s “power of the purse” and threatens its oversight authority over the Executive Branch.
This is one of the reasons that ultra-conservatives, who in the past have staunchly opposed stopgap funding measures like continuing resolutions, have been explicit about their support for this CR: it enables administration officials to continue dismantling and defunding government programs that they oppose.
The CR also includes a cruel provision that requires Washington, D.C. to cut more than $1 billion from its current budget. These are D.C. funds that come from locally paid taxes, not federal funds. Although the Senate voted on a standalone bill to restore funding back to D.C., until the House votes on the bill, D.C. could still face hiring freezes and furloughs throughout city agencies. This could result in unsafe streets, increased wait times for EMS calls, and a hiring freeze for teachers, among other devastating impacts to the city’s economy. We urge the House to pass the bill as soon as possible to restore D.C.’s budget.
CLASP remains committed to supporting families and communities and ensuring that they can meet their basic needs. This CR does not achieve that goal.
By Mark Swartz
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Key advocacy organizations, including The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) and the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) are providing — and regularly updating — resources for child care educators. According to Suma Setty, senior policy analyst at CLASP, about one in five U.S. child care providers is an immigrant. “Unless something drastic happens, there are certain things that will remain true, like your Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights,” she says, referring to protection against arbitrary arrest and self-incrimination, respectively. “All people have a constitutional right to remain silent.”
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Juan Gomez, senior policy analyst at the Center for Law and Social Policy, says DACA recipients and other undocumented immigrants had been fully barred from any coverage through the ACA since its inception in 2010, and through its implementation in 2014. Then, last November, a Biden administration rule went into effect that finally changed that, allowing DACA recipients to access the health care marketplace for the first time.
This statement can be attributed to Cemeré James, interim executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
Washington, DC, March 12, 2025—Yesterday, the Trump Administration slashed half of the U.S. Department of Education’s workforce when it laid off approximately 1,300 career staff and 600 probationary employees. A nation’s strength is built on the strength of its public education system, and these actions purposely weaken not only American education but America itself. Mass layoffs also undermine the economy and, if left unchecked, will lead to higher unemployment.
For 46 years, the Department of Education (ED) has helped advance and protect equitable educational opportunities for all students seeking to learn in the United States. The Trump Administration’s “final mission” for the department is to intentionally dismantle it, disregarding both its importance to the nation and the profound unpopularity of shuttering the ED. Allowing Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency to operate the federal government like a private equity firm and unilaterally strip federal agencies of valuable people and resources will be ruinous to students, families, communities, and the economy.
Yesterday’s action is particularly concerning because of the impact on marginalized and vulnerable student populations. Public school systems that rely on federal spending will face increased difficulty in continuing to educate students. With a greatly reduced staff, the ED’s Office of Civil Rights cannot fulfill its obligation to vigilantly enforce federal civil rights laws in schools and among other recipients of ED funding. Researchers will struggle to analyze educational outcomes produced by various federal programs after the elimination of the National Center for Education Studies. Postsecondary students will be unable to begin or continue their educational pathways with the loss of staff capacity to manage financial aid awards. The harm of these cuts to students with disabilities, including the effects on early intervention programs for young children, remains unacknowledged by a Secretary of Education who struggles to remember what IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) stands for.
The administration has no intention of resolving these concerns or communicating how it will replace the ED’s essential services and programs. Since Inauguration Day the administration has wielded authority without regard to the democratic process, ignoring the laws or livelihoods they break.
CLASP stands ready to work with and on behalf of students, families, and communities to advance and protect the educational rights of all students. We call on federal and state policymakers to oppose these reckless actions and take steps to slow down and mitigate the harm while also supporting children, families, and educators at risk. In addition, we call on our partners in the education and children’s advocacy space to join the effort to push back against these harmful attacks, which are an affront to our collective goals to build a more just and equitable country.
This statement can be attributed to Wendy Cervantes, director of immigration and immigrant families at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
Washington, DC, March 11, 2025–The Trump Administration’s announcement to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to restrict access to health coverage for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients is disappointing but not surprising. In its search for new ways to threaten the well-being of immigrant communities, this administration has gone out of its way to restrict and worsen our health care system for everyone.
Since the inception of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), over 800,000 DACA recipients have been barred from health coverage. Thanks to a Biden Administration rule, on November 1, 2024, individuals with DACA were finally able to purchase health coverage through the ACA Marketplace.
A 2023 survey found that DACA recipients were up to three times more likely to be uninsured. That lack of health coverage impacts them and the children in DACA households. Over 300,000 children in the United States have a parent with DACA status.
DACA recipients, on average, have lived here for over 20 years and collectively pay billions in taxes each year to support programs and services for which they largely remain ineligible. The annual cost of providing coverage to DACA recipients is a small fraction of the trillions of dollars members of Congress are attempting to add to our national debt to give tax cuts to the richest Americans through the budget reconciliation process. This isn’t about costs or lack of resources, it’s about cruelty.
Until a rule is finalized, DACA recipients’ current enrollment in health coverage remains the same. The proposed rule makes clear that this administration will continue to waste time on policies that hurt our families, communities, and collective well-being rather than working to actually make the United States healthier.
By Mark Swartz
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Key advocacy organizations, including The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) and the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) are providing — and regularly updating — resources for child care educators. According to Suma Setty, a senior policy analyst at CLASP, about one in five U.S. child care providers is an immigrant. “Unless something drastic happens, there are certain things that will remain true, like your Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights,” she says, referring to protection against arbitrary arrest and self-incrimination, respectively. “All people have a constitutional right to remain silent.”
By Stephanie Schmit & Rachel Wilensky
Federal budget proposals currently under consideration threaten resources available for children and families through multiple key programs, including the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) programs. These programs are vital supports for families with low incomes throughout the country and provide access to essential services, including child care and early education. The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) is the primary source of federal funding for child care and early education, but in some states TANF and SSBG provide significant support for child care assistance. The proposed threats to these programs will further restrict access to child care and early education for tens of thousands of children and families.
Child care access for close to 40,000 children across the country is at risk in addition to vital supports and services for families if we do not protect SSBG and TANF funding. This fact sheet provides background information about SSBG and TANF programs and highlights the number of children whose child care would be impacted by threatened cuts.
>> Read the full fact sheet here