A study into immigration raids’ effect on children produced numerous recommendations, many of which were adopted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Among the recommendations: granting arrestees access to intermediaries to inquire about children; improving telephone access; and not moving parents far away.Immigrants

Randy Capps

Rosa Maria Castañeda

English

Research Papers in Economics

10   Summer 2008
by Randy Capps and Rosa Maria Castañeda 
The Urban Institute
Impact
Immigration
of
The
On March 6, 2007, several hundred federal immigration agents raided Michael Bianco 
Inc., a military contractor in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Michael Bianco, which made 
U.S. military backpacks, had been under investigation for employing unauthorized im-
migrants and operating a sweatshop. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 
officers questioned every employee about citizenship and immigration status, and ar-
rested 361 workers for being in the country illegally and lacking work authorization. 
Within weeks, the plant’s owner had reopened in Puerto Rico. Most of the arrested work-
ers, however, remained in federal detention for months.
Later that spring, researchers from the Urban Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research 
organization, visited New Bedford and two other large raid sites—Greeley, Colorado, and 
Grand Island, Nebraska—to talk to arrested immigrants, family members, and others 
in the community.1 The research focused on the raids’ short-term impacts on families   
with children. 
Altogether, more than 900 adults were arrested, including parents of over 500 children, 
two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens. In New Bedford, most of those arrested were 
Central Americans. Comprising the largest group were Guatemala’s Maya Kiche people, 
many of whom had fled poverty and civil unrest. In some cases, those arrested were 
single parents, and almost three-quarters of the children were age five or under. 
RaidsCommunities & Banking    11
Impacts on Children
The  children  experienced  a  variety  of   
challenges,  including  separation  from   
parents, economic hardship, isolation, and 
social stigma.
Family Separation
Most of those arrested came from two-par-
ent homes, which are a particular strength 
of the Latino immigrant community. Many 
were detained a long time, so their children 
went from living with two parents to living 
with one. With many immigrants in deten-
tion six months after the raids, the remain-
ing parents often had difficulty coping. For 
example, some spouses lacked access to or 
familiarity with bank accounts or other fi-
nancial resources. 
About 60 of the New Bedford immi-
grants were released the same day because 
they were single parents or had very young 
or sick children. Others were held for days 
or weeks. The Massachusetts Department of 
Social Services sent three dozen social work-
ers to Texas—where many detainees were 
moved after their arrest. They obtained the 
release of 21 parents, many of whom had 
not divulged that they had children for fear 
that the children could be taken away or 
deported.  Many  children  felt  abandoned 
and could not understand why a parent had 
simply “disappeared.” 
Economic Hardship 
Many families lost the adult with the bet-
ter job, and household incomes plunged. In 
New Bedford, the Michael Bianco jobs only 
paid between $7 and $9 per hour, and some 
were  part-time.  But  the  other  two  sites’ 
meat-packing jobs paid more than $10 per 
hour, were full- or overtime unionized jobs, 
and offered full benefits.
For  a  while,  extended  families  and 
informal networks helped provide child care 
and economic support, keeping the major-
ity of children from living alone without 
supervision or becoming homeless. Other 
than three adolescents who were themselves 
arrested at the New Bedford work site, no 
children wound up in foster care.
Most families also received some form 
of  community  assistance  lasting  three  or 
four months. Some families lost their homes 
or crowded in with other families. Utilities 
were temporarily cut off for some, and often 
there wasn’t enough money for food. 
Fear and Isolation 
The raids created a climate of fear, especial-
ly in Grand Island, where follow-up raids   
continued  for  over  a  week.  Researchers 
spoke to families who hid in their homes for 
days or weeks. Many were fearful of seek-
ing help—even at trusted locations such as 
churches. Some would not open the doors 
for people who brought food baskets and 
other assistance.
Social Stigma 
The remaining parents and caregivers strug-
gled to explain to children what had hap-
pened. It was especially difficult for younger 
children to understand. One child said that 
his parent was “arrested for working.” Some 
older children, mostly high school students, 
went to the work sites and saw their parents 
taken away in handcuffs. Children also had 
to deal with signs of increased community 
hostility, especially in Greeley.
The  separation,  economic  hardship, 
fear, isolation, and stigma led to children 
on Children
iStockphoto12   Summer 2008
showing more aggressive behavior, changes 
in sleep patterns and appetites, mood swings, 
and  prolonged  bouts  of  crying.  Mental 
health  professionals  that  the  researchers 
interviewed spoke of elevated stress in chil-
dren, signs of depression, and even suicidal 
thoughts. (The researchers were unable to 
interview a random sample of parents and 
could  not  document  the  prevalence  of   
mental health effects.) 
Community Responses 
All  three  communities  initiated  intensive 
and broad response efforts to assist immi-
grant families after the raids. The relief was 
especially well organized in New Bedford, 
where the Massachusetts Immigration and 
Refugee  Advocacy  (MIRA)  coalition  led 
an effort to bring together state and local 
government  officials,  representatives  from 
the Honduran and Maya Kiche communi-
ties, faith leaders, foundations, and others 
to plan the effort. Local foundations and 
individual philanthropists raised significant 
funds, and aid was distributed to families 
for rent, housing, food assistance, clothing, 
and other necessities. 
Public health and social service agencies 
also helped, but their roles varied substan-
tially across the three sites. The New Bedford 
city government was particularly supportive 
of families in need, and social workers from 
the  Massachusetts  Department  of  Social 
Services worked to link parents with chil-
dren and distribute relief. Public assistance 
through welfare programs and food stamps, 
however, was limited to U.S. citizens and 
legal residents. Most adults did not qualify, 
and many families were afraid to apply even 
if they did qualify.
Churches emerged as central distribu-
tion  points  for  relief  because  immigrant 
families  trusted  them.  In  all  three  sites, 
public agencies and nonprofit service pro-
viders  stationed  their  staff  at  churches. 
Religious  and  community  leaders  also 
went  door-to-door  to  provide  assistance, 
although some families were afraid to open 
their doors even to them.
How Can We Improve?
The study offers a preliminary view of the 
immigration raids’ impacts on children. It 
covers three of the largest raids ever con-
ducted by ICE, but there have been more 
than  10,000  work-site  arrests—and  other 
arrests in homes and on streets—over the 
past several years.2 With about 12 million 
unauthorized  immigrants  in  the  country 
and more than 5 million children with at 
least one unauthorized parent, more fami-
lies with children are at risk of raids and 
their consequences.3
The  research  report  offered  recom-
mendations for the way in which raids are 
conducted,  and  ICE  issued  guidelines  in 
November 2007 addressing many of the rec-
ommendations. One recommendation was 
to grant arrestees access to lawyers, consular 
officials, social workers, and other interme-
diaries to inquire about children. Another 
was to allow easier communication between 
arrested parents and children by improving 
telephone  access  and  not  moving  parents 
out of the states in which they were arrested. 
Single parents and parents with very young 
children  (nursing  mothers,  for  instance) 
should be released on the same day of the 
arrest, as early in the day as possible. 
There were also recommendations for 
state  and  local  governments  and  the  pri-
vate sector. In all three cases, schools did 
an excellent job of ensuring that children 
did  not  return  to  empty  homes,  and  the 
Grand  Island  School  District  developed 
a  particularly  successful  model.  State  and 
local governments would be wise to develop 
similar plans, and a centralized planning and 
coordinating body—such as the group set 
up by MIRA in New Bedford—could help 
ensure  efficient  service  delivery.  Further, 
the report suggested that trusted religious 
institutions  should  be  used  as  assistance 
and  outreach  centers  and  that  a  national 
clearinghouse  should  be  established  to   
share information.
Many immigrant parents may eventu-
ally face the choice of leaving their children 
in  the  United  States  or  taking  them  to 
an  uncertain  future  in  another  country. 
Families themselves need to prepare. Both 
parents should have access to bank accounts 
and  other  financial  assets.  They  need  to 
gather their documents and their children’s, 
and make sure that children who are U.S. 
citizens have passports in case they have to 
leave the country after a parent’s arrest. 
Even  if  all  the  recommendations  are 
followed,  however,  children  could  still 
face harm from the arrest, detention, and   
deportation  of  their  parents.  So  far  there 
is  no  hard  evidence  on  the  longer-term 
impacts.  Researchers  from  the  Urban 
Institute  plan  to  return  to  New  Bedford 
and other communities to investigate the 
longer-term  impacts  of  work-site  raids 
and other types of enforcement actions on 
immigrants’ children.  
Randy Capps is a senior research associate 
and  Rosa  Maria  Castañeda  is  a  research   
associate at the Urban Institute in Washing-
ton DC. Their ongoing research to investigate 
the  raids’  longer-term  effects  on  children  is   
supported by the Foundation for Child Devel-
opment and the Peppercorn Foundation.
Endnotes
1See Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids 
on America’s Children, published in October 2007 with 
support  from  the  Annie  E.  Casey  Foundation  and 
posted on the Internet sites of the National Council of 
La Raza (www.nclr.org) and the Urban Institute (www.
urban.org). NCLR supported the research with fund-
ing from the Atlantic Foundation.
2U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “Work 
Site Enforcement Overview” (Washington DC: U.S. 
Department  of  Homeland  Security,  August  2007), 
http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/factsheets/work site.htm.
3Jeffrey S. Passel, The Size and Characteristics of the 
Unauthorized Migrant Population in the U.S.: Estimates 
Based on the March 2005 Current Population Survey 
(Washington DC: Pew Hispanic Center, 2006).
Many immigrant parents may eventually face  
the choice of leaving their citizen children  
in the United States or taking them to an  
uncertain future in another country.
This Communities & Banking article is copyrighted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the Bank or 
the Federal Reserve System. Copies of articles may be downloaded without cost at www.bos.frb.org/commdev/c&b/index.htm.

The impact of immigration raids on children

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The impact of immigration raids on children

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