Washington, D.C., Dec. 11, 2025 — A brand new report from the American Immigration Council warns that the U.S. childcare system (already stretched skinny by rising prices, staffing shortages, and excessive demand) is dealing with catastrophic disruption beneath President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. The lack of even a fraction of the childcare workforce might depart households with no protection and no skill to work.
READ THE REPORT HERE.
The report, Immigrant Employees and the Childcare Disaster: What’s at Stake for Households and the Financial system, finds that immigrant employees make up 1 in 5 childcare employees nationwide, with even increased concentrations in main metro areas like Miami and San Jose. Greater than half are non-citizens and almost a third are people who find themselves undocumented, weak to deportation or lack of work authorization.
The report additionally options in-depth profiles of 10 childcare suppliers and fogeys whose livelihoods and household stability are already being shaken by enforcement crackdowns and visa uncertainty.
“Working dad and mom already really feel the pressure of a childcare system that’s barely holding collectively. Dad and mom can’t clock in in the event that they don’t have protected, secure childcare, and immigrants play a key function in offering that. Mass deportation pulls that basis out from beneath households and jeopardizes dad and mom’ skill to remain within the labor drive,” stated Jeremy Robbins, government director of the American Immigration Council.
EXPLORE THE DATA HERE.
The report paperwork how stepped-up enforcement has already disrupted childcare availability in a number of communities. In south Philadelphia, a daycare middle serving predominantly low-income immigrant households noticed enrollment plummet from 158 youngsters to 97 after enforcement actions, forcing layoffs and classroom closures. At one Washington, D.C. preschool, academics needed to give up as a result of of new obstacles to preserve work authorization.
Different key findings embrace:
- 20.1 % of childcare employees are immigrants: over 282,000 folks, overwhelmingly ladies.
- In cities like San Jose and Miami, immigrants make up over two-thirds of childcare employees. In Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, they make up almost half.
- Staffing shortages are already extreme. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics initiatives 160,200 childcare jobs will open annually over the following decade because of turnover.
- Immigrant childcare employees total usually tend to be self-employed and to work full-time, filling childcare jobs the place hiring U.S.-born employees has confirmed troublesome.
- Aggressive immigration enforcement has already induced closures, empty lecture rooms, and absenteeism in daycare facilities in some communities.
- The report contains testimonies profiling 10 people, together with childcare suppliers and fogeys, about how they might pay the value ought to the childcare system tighten additional due to mass raids and extra visa restrictions. “I wish to be productive. I wish to be a part of the workforce,” stated alias ‘Jen,’ one mom in New York Metropolis. “As issues ratchet up, there’s at all times somewhat voice in my head, ‘Please, please don’t revoke visas.’ [But] if [my au pair] goes then I must give up my job.”
READ THE REPORT HERE.
Disruptions to the U.S. childcare system stemming from Trump’s immigration insurance policies will have an effect on not solely households, however the broader labor market as properly. In response to U.S. census information analyzed within the report:
- In 2025, 12.8 million households with youngsters beneath the age of 14, or 41.9 % of these households, had at the very least one grownup whose job was affected after dropping entry to childcare.
- This contains 2.5 million households that used unpaid depart, 2 million households that lower work hours, 1.3 million households with adults who didn’t search for a job, and greater than 600,000 households with adults who give up a job.
“From hospitals to retail to tech, U.S. employers rely on dad and mom with the ability to work,” stated Nan Wu, director of analysis on the American Immigration Council. “Eradicating the employees who make childcare potential would choke off workforce participation and weaken our economic system at a time when it’s already struggling.”
