Anxiety attacks, tears, questions: The impact of immigration sweeps on children

In their silence and their stomachaches, or the sudden burst of tears, the children living through hardline federal immigration enforcement are saying one thing: they are not OK.

In the days after her father was detained while on a landscaping job in La Mirada on June 18, 11-year-old Isella could hardly stop crying. Her mother, Maria Murillo, then noticed Isella’s eyes started twitching, followed by uncontrollable shaking in her head and hands.

“We had to take her to the emergency room about a week later,” Murillo said. “They said it was due to too much stress and anxiety.”

As the Pomona family remained separated, with their patriarch Jose Zavala later moved to an ICE processing center in El Paso, Texas, Isella, one of the couple’s four children, continued to struggle.

She didn’t want to go back-to-school shopping. That was something she and her father did.

“Then she didn’t want to go to school,” Murillo said. “She said, ‘He’s not going to be home after the first day to ask me how it went.’ She was going through all these scenarios in her head and she just broke down again.”

Murillo’s 14-year old daughter, Arabel, cried relentlessly the first days after her father was detained, then found herself unable to cry.

“I don’t know why,” she said. “After the first week, I couldn’t cry any more. Like, tears weren’t going down.”

She would have a panic attack, after expecting at one point for her father to come home by a certain date. But when that didn’t happen, “I felt like I jinxed it. They had to bring me outside and throw water on me.”

The emotional trauma of sweeping raids by masked, armed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, shown in many videos grabbing people off the streets and bundling them in the back of vehicles, can have immediate and long-term impacts on children’s mental and emotional health. And with the first day of school closing in for many Southland districts, parents and educators are gearing up to care for traumatized children in the aftermath of the raids.

In the weeks since June 6, when the first armed federal immigration agents raided L.A.’s garment district without warning, “roving patrols” of masked agents have converged at sites from Orange County to the Inland Empire to Los Angeles County. The sites include suburban towns such as Whittier, Pico Rivera, Pasadena  and other cities, detaining undocumented immigrants, and in some cases, U.S. citizens. The operation has outraged several local leaders and frightened many in immigrant, largely-Latino communities.

With so many people arrested, many immigrant families have gone into hiding, finding themselves unable to work and pay for essentials.

Their children are witnessing a community-level of fear that parents and educators report are already exhibiting itself in telling behaviors: heightened stress and anxiety, withdrawal, fear and avoidance, behavioral difficulties, inability to regulate emotions, nightmares, and physical symptoms such as gastrointestinal distress.

In the days since her husband Erick Alexander Hernandez, 34, was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in San Diego on June 1, Nancy Rivera said their 3-year-old daughter asks every day for her “Daddy.”

“When he is able to call us, she talks to him but always cries because she wants her dad back,” Rivera, 33, said.

“Those routines are sacred to a child’s sense of safety and belonging, and they were violently torn apart.” — the Rev. Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton

Hernandez, working as an Uber driver, said he accidentally crossed into Mexico after taking the wrong freeway exit. The U.S. government says he “self-deported” and is pushing to deport him to El Salvador, a country he left 20 years ago. But Hernandez is part of DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and his family said he simply made a mistake. His wife is due to give birth to their second child, a boy, on Aug. 13.

The couple, who live in Maywood, have been together since 2020. Rivera said she has not gone on maternity leave from her work as a medical assistant because Hernandez was their main breadwinner.

“I have to be strong for my daughter and my future baby boy,” she said, adding she is sharing their story to help other families not feel alone.

‘Trauma in real time’

Many of the men taken by ICE on the June 6 raid at the Ambiance Apparel warehouse in downtown Los Angeles are members of, or connected to the Rev. Canon Jaime Edwards-Acton’s church family at St. Stephen’s Episcopal in Hollywood.

“These are fathers and brothers and neighbors, men we know, love and serve alongside every week,” Edwards-Acton said. And most of them have children waiting for them to come home.

Edwards-Acton said he’s spoken to wives, children, siblings still trying to make sense of what happened while trying to hold a household together.

“Several families with young children told me that their kids kept asking when their Papá would be home,” Edwards-Acton said. “Little ones waiting for him to walk through the door. Kids missing the everyday things—being walked to school in the morning, kicking a soccer ball around at the park, sitting down together for dinner.

“Those routines are sacred to a child’s sense of safety and belonging, and they were violently torn apart,” he said.

Edwards-Acton said a teenager told him her father was the one in the family who communicated best with her younger autistic sibling.

“He had this calm, steady presence and patience that helped de-escalate frustrating moments for everyone,” he said. “Since he’s been detained, their household has felt a lot more stressful in this area. The kids are anxious, confused, and hurting. This is trauma in real time.”

Sam Sandoval, an organizer with the multi-faith LA Voice, said children in immigrant communities have always lived with fear, but it has worsened since January, when the Trump administration rescinded guidance that created “protected areas” from immigration enforcement, such as schools, churches, and hospitals.

“Kids go to school and worry that they’ll come back to a home without their parents,” Sandoval said. “It’s happened before, but because this is such a marginalized group, unless you have a direct link to these stories and this community, you rarely hear about it.

Educators as source of ‘positive regard’

Sandoval said teachers, with those at Los Angeles Unified prepping for their Aug. 14. start date, remain the frontline defenders for children.

Tony Thurmond, state superintendent of public instruction for California’s Department of Education, has made several statements directed at Donald Trump and his administration’s policies.

“Our children deserve to be protected and cared for, not terrified at school or ripped from their families,” Thurmond said in a statement.

He noted that about half of all children in our state have at least one immigrant parent. One in five children in California are in mixed-status families, meaning that they have parents who have different immigration statuses from each other. Ninety-three percent of those children are United States citizens, he said.

For Marco Villegas, superintendent of El Rancho Unified School District, the fear in the Pico Rivera community is evident in its schools, where 10 ICE agents were caught on video urinating on the grounds of Ruben Salazar High School. Of its 7,000 students across 14 schools, 97.3% identify as Hispanic/Latino.

“Even though we don’t ask families to share their immigration status, we hear the concern in conversations with parents, and we see the impact in other ways, such as parents calling our offices to express hesitation to coming to school events, sending neighbors to pick up their children, or even a major reduction in events,” Villegas said.

For example, attendance was markedly low at this summer’s usually popular Farmers Market, sponsored by the city of Pico Rivera, a sign that families are still hesitant to venture out. Villegas added that summer school enrollment was also down.

“While there may be other factors or reasons that students didn’t attend summer school, we believe anxiety, fear, and apprehension may have had something to do with it,” he said. “Our message to families has been consistent: ‘You are welcome, and your children have a safe place with us.’”

El Rancho faculty and staff are trained in protocols to keep students safe and parents reassured, Villegas said, with mental health counselors on the ready, updated contact information for families and a full staff at district schools. The district also runs a Family Resource Center, available for families in need of basic supplies, health care or community services.

Teachers have a unique and vital place in children’s lives, able to offer trauma-specific care, said psychologist Kendra Read, vice president of therapy at Brightline, a Palo Alto company.

“Our teachers are at the forefront of identifying when something changes for a child, they are attuned to that, so I know they will continue to be the incredible advocates we know them to be,” she said. “The best teachers I know also put forth this unconditional positive regard for the children they work with, letting them know, ‘You belong here,’ and display to their children that they’re worthy and that we value them.”

What can families do now?

In a world rocked by uncertainty, offer stability, Read said.

“We don’t want to avoid the issue,” she said. “Ask them questions to get a sense of what they’re thinking. Open a dialogue so kids can share what they’ve heard and adults can help them process, simply and plainly. Say yes, things feel unfair, and grown-ups are trying to fix it.”

Brightline is the parent company for BrightLife Kids, a virtual service platform that offers free behavioral health support for children, youth and their families in California. Teens and young adults, up to age 25, can access similar services through Soluna.

Through a partnership with California, BrightLife Kids and Soluna provide free telehealth, tools, and resources to navigate behavioral health challenges, regardless of insurance or immigration status.

“Kids exist within a system, and we are all part of a community that impacts that system,” Read said. “There’s a lot you can do that depends on how old they are. For our youngest kids who are verbal, check in with them to be reassuring and keep discussions simple.”

The best thing to do is offer routine: eat dinner together at the same time, practice your faith, keep up with bedtime stories or other rituals.

“Maintain points of certainty wherever they’re available,” Read said. “What are things you do that anchor your family? Do that.”

ICE response

Community advocates say ICE and related agencies such as Border Patrol and Department of Homeland Security need to rethink its procedures for dealing with children, since parents caught up in immigration sweeps are unable to pick their children up from school or daycare.

Trump administration officials say the nationwide crackdown is the answer to “invasion” of undocumented immigrants. It’s a fulfillment of President Trump’s pledge to arrest the “worst of the worst” criminal immigrants and mass deport them. And while advocacy groups say most of the people being arrested are not criminals, federal authorities say the crackdown is working, pointing to falling numbers of border crossings and daily web posts of hardened criminals who have been apprehended.

In an email response to questions about children impacted by ICE enforcement, an agency spokesperson pointed to a policy of non-separation. But did not address the emotional impact on children.

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not separate families or deport U.S. citizens, but removable parents — absent indications of abuse or neglect — can choose to take their children with them, regardless of the children’s immigration statuses,” the statement said. “Parents who choose to leave their children in the U.S. have the option to designate a third-party caregiver. This has always been the case.”

Community-level fear, community-level response

While it is impossible to know what children’s experience will be in the long term, Read said the much-vaunted assertion that youth are resilient also depends on the environment promoting that resilience.

“There are ways a community can promote good coping skills, making sure our kids continue to feel connected to others, that they don’t feel alone, that they have a social life and extracurriculars, through sports or a church and their neighborhood,” Read said.

And for caregivers, such as parents coping with a detained partner, self-care, such as five minutes to find space to rest or take a break, can pay dividends in tending to children.

At the Murillo home in Pomona, Jose Zavala returned to his family on July 30, 42 days after his arrest. His daughters made welcome home signs, and the family spoke in whispers, so he could nap while they cooked his favorite dish.

Isella said she is now excited to go back to school, and buy school supplies with her father at Walmart.

“We’re just happy to have him back,” Murillo said. “We stay strong together.”

A practical strategy for building resilience in the face of crisis is to help children acknowledge fearful thoughts while thinking about things that help them. The message should be: “I know my family will always love me because I am worthy and valued.” Read said.

For pastor Edwards-Acton in Hollywood, community is everything. Just showing up.

Showing up looks like checking in, he added.

“It looks like being part of the food deliveries. It looks like driving someone to visit their detained loved one,” Edwards-Acton. “Or just texting someone to say, ‘I see you. You’re not alone.’”

“Kids need to see that their community cares enough to fight for their parents,” he said.

Edwards- Acton’s church is part of Sacred Resistance, the social justice ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. It advocates for immigrants, refugees and any community “targeted by hate” such as transgender people.

Any sense of solidarity, that feeling of being seen and surrounded by love, is deeply healing, especially for children, Edwards-Acton said.

“It can be the difference between despair and resilience,” Edwards-Acton said.