This statement can be attributed to Olivia Golden, interim executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)

Washington, D.C., January 21, 2025 – On Monday night, President Trump rescinded several important immigration-related orders from the Biden Administration and signed a host of executive orders that jeopardize the safety and health of immigrant families and their children, including U.S. citizens, and threaten the economic stability of the entire country.

One order makes an unprecedented attack on the constitutional right to birthright citizenship, specifically targeting babies who don’t have at least one parent who is a legal permanent resident or U.S. citizen and ultimately creating bureaucratic challenges and delays for all families welcoming new babies. The administration’s plans will also drastically expand interior immigration enforcement measures. This includes a mass deportation agenda that prioritizes the majority of undocumented immigrants for deportation; expands detention capacity and enforcement agents; increases collaborations between local law enforcement and federal immigration agencies; denies federal funds to sanctuary jurisdictions; and limits Temporary Protected Status designations, parole authority, and work permits. Yesterday’s orders also include ramped-up border enforcement, such as measures that will militarize our border in an effort to deter asylum seekers from seeking safety.

Taken together, these directives, if fully implemented, will have devastating consequences on immigrants, their children, the communities where they live and work and volunteer, and the nation as a whole. They are clearly part of a strategy to instill fear, marginalize the millions of people affected, and destabilize their communities. We also know the cumulative effect of policies such as these has the most significant impact on children’s development, especially young children. In particular, denying the benefits of citizenship to babies in their earliest days of life can lead to long-term developmental harms and render them stateless.

We are deeply concerned about the potential for these policies to create a chilling effect on children’s participation in school and child care programs; separate even the youngest children from their parents and caregivers; cause financial instability and housing insecurity; and destabilize the workforce, particularly in child care, construction, agriculture, health care, and other sectors that rely on immigrant workers.

These orders are simply an assault on our economy, values, and democracy. And because our rapidly aging nation depends on children and young people in immigrant families for a successful, thriving future, these orders attack the well-being of everyone in the coming years and decades.  Furthermore, gutting the refugee system and shutting the door on asylum-seeking children and families undermines our American legacy as a safe haven.

CLASP stands ready to ensure that immigrants and care providers are informed about their rights and that families can prepare as much as possible and continue to meet their basic needs. 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 workers at risk. In addition, we call on our partners in the anti-poverty 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.

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See CLASP’s toolkit for early childhood stakeholders on how to keep their centers safe from immigration enforcement. CLASP also leads the Children Thrive Action Network