Washington, D.C., Feb. 26, 2026 —  Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, Brooklyn Defender Services, Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, HIAS, the American Immigration Council, and National Immigrant Justice Center filed a lawsuit and motion for preliminary relief today to block a new interim final rule issued by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) that would effectively eliminate meaningful appellate review before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenges the February 6, 2026, Interim Final Rule (IFR) titled Appellate Procedures for the Board of Immigration Appeals, which is set to take effect on March 9, 2026.

As detailed in the complaint, the IFR imposes sweeping changes that would eviscerate noncitizens’ right to appeal decisions in their immigration cases, including:

• Reduce the time to file most appeals from 30 days to 10 days;
• Require summary dismissal of appeals unless a majority of permanent BIA members vote within 10 days to accept the case for review;
• Permit dismissal decisions before transcripts are created or records are transmitted;
• Impose simultaneous 20-day briefing schedules with extensions allowed only in narrow “exceptional circumstances”;
• Eliminate reply briefs unless specifically invited; and
• Impose rigid case completion deadlines and concentrate decision-making authority in agency leadership.

“”The BIA Interim Final Rule makes a mockery of due process. In addition to taking away virtually any benefit the BIA could provide immigrants, it will wreak havoc on people with cases in immigration court or federal appellate courts,” said Emilie Raber, Senior Attorney at the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. “Litigants who are children, are detained, do not have a lawyer, have disabilities, or speak rare languages will be disproportionately harmed by this Interim Final Rule.”

“The Interim Final Rule creates a barrier to appellate review in removal proceedings and strikes at the heart of due process,” said Lucas Marquez, Director of Civil Rights & Law Reform at Brooklyn Defender Services. “The Rule will result in the deportation of people who are eligible for immigration relief — people who have valid legal claims that an immigration judge got it wrong — simply because the Board of Immigration Appeals will no longer be an avenue to fairly review their cases.”

“This interim final rule completely decimates the process to appeal a case in front of the BIA,” said Laura St. John, Legal Director at the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project. “It will render the vast majority of immigrants unable to appeal their cases and will be particularly harmful to those who most need the recourse of an appeal process, including pro se litigants, vulnerable children, Indigenous language speakers, and people in immigration detention. It will be nearly impossible for most detained pro se individuals to submit a notice of appeal in just 10 days, and without the ability to appeal, many people will be unjustly deported back to dangerous or even life-threatening conditions.” 

“Our clients deserve a fair chance in the immigration court system,” said Stephen Brown, Director of Immigration Legal Services at HIAS.  “Without access to a meaningful appeal process, people who have fled persecution and violence could face dangerous consequences, including the risk of being sent back to a place that is not safe for them.  We are proud to join this legal challenge, and to take a stand against a policy change that will have a seismic impact on the ability of legal service providers such as HIAS to support immigrants in navigating a complex and ever-changing legal system.”

“It is hard to overstate the potential human toll of the changes proposed in this rule,” said Lisa Koop, director of legal services at the National Immigrant Justice Center, which is co-counsel and an organizational plaintiff in the lawsuit. “Curtailing due process in this manner guarantees that legal services providers like ours will be less able to help our clients defend against unjust deportation, and many people who would otherwise be eligible for asylum or other legal status in the United States will never have the opportunity to pursue protection under our laws.”

“The Trump-Vance administration is gaming the immigration appeals system in an unlawful effort to eliminate meaningful review and fast-track deportations,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “What is this administration afraid of? Why are they working so hard to deny people their rights, whether it’s due process or rights to an appeal? The cases that come before the board are often matters of life or death. By cutting appeal deadlines, dismissing cases before transcripts even exist, and forcing rushed decisions under an artificial timeline, the administration is trying to deny justice. We are in court again to defend the rule of law and hold this administration accountable.”

“Immigration courts make life-and-death decisions. Stripping away the possibility to meaningfully appeal a court decision, while charging over $1,000 for the privilege, transforms the appeals process into a sham. It puts people at risk of wrongful and even lethal deportation,” said Michelle Lapointe, legal director at the American Immigration Council. 

According to the filings, the IFR was issued without the required notice-and-comment rulemaking period and fundamentally restructures appellate review in removal proceedings. Plaintiffs argue that by requiring summary dismissal unless the full Board acts within 10 days — before transcripts are created — the rule makes meaningful review functionally impossible in most cases.

Plaintiffs argue the rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the Fifth Amendment, which protects people from deprivation of liberty without due process of law. They are asking the court to block the rule’s effective date and prevent implementation while the case proceeds.

The organizations are seeking a preliminary relief to prevent the rule from taking effect on March 9, 2026, and to keep it blocked while the litigation proceeds.

The case is Amica Center for Immigrant Rights v. EOIR.

View the complaint here.

View the stay motion here.

The post Legal Services Organizations Sue to Block Sweeping Immigration Appeals Rule That Eliminates Meaningful Judicial Review appeared first on American Immigration Council.

Washington DC, Jan. 14 Wednesday — A new report released today by the American Immigration Council shows that the Trump administration is locking up hundreds of thousands of people— most with no criminal record—into a harsh immigration detention system that makes it near impossible to fight their cases or secure release.  

READ THE REPORT HERE.

The report, Immigration Detention Expansion in Trump’s Second Term, reveals how historic funding increases and aggressive enforcement tactics have pushed immigration detention to the highest level in U.S. history. Rather than addressing serious public safety threats, the government is spending billions on mass detention to pressure people who pose no threat to give up their cases and accept deportation. 

As the Trump administration expands its mass deportation agenda, the consequences extend far beyond detention centers. DHS’s aggressive tactics during large-scale enforcement actions in American neighborhoods around the country have already led to tragic, preventable deaths, revealing the human cost of an immigration enforcement system that operates with little oversight or accountability. 

“This has absolutely nothing to do with law and order. Under mass deportation, we’re seeing the construction of a mass immigration detention system on a scale the United States has never seen, in which people with no criminal record are routinely locked up with no clear path to release,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. “Over the next three years, billions of more dollars will be poured into a detention system that is on track to rival the entire federal criminal prison system. The goal is not public safety, but to pressure people into giving up their rights and accepting deportation.” 

READ THE REPORT HERE.

According to the report, the number of people held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention rose nearly 75 percent in 2025, climbing from roughly 40,000 at the start of the year to 66,000 by the start of December, the highest level ever recorded. And with Congress authorizing $45 billion dollars in new detention funding, the report warns that the system could more than triple in size over the next four years. 

Major findings of the report include: 

• There is a dramatic shift in who is being detained. Arrests of people with no criminal record surged by 2,450 percent in Trump’s first year, driven by increases in tactics like “at-large” arrests, roving patrols, worksite raids, and re-arrests of people attending immigration court hearings or ICE check-ins. The percent of people arrested by ICE and held in detention with no criminal record rose from 6 percent in January to 41 percent by December. 

• The detention system has expanded so rapidly that already deleterious conditions have worsened. Through the start of December, ICE was using over 100 more facilities to detain immigrants than at the start of the year. For the first time ever, thousands of immigrants arrested in the interior are being detained in hastily-constructed tent camps, where conditions are brutal. More people died in ICE detention in 2025 than in the last four years combined. 

• People are stripped of their chance to ask a judge for release. New policies have made prolonged, indefinite detention the norm. The Trump administration is pursuing policies that strip millions of people, if they are detained, of the right to have a bond hearing where they can make a case to be released into their community while their immigration case is under review, including for those with decades of life in the United States.  

• The administration is using detention to drive up deportations. By November 2025, for every person released from ICE detention, more than fourteen were deported directly from custody. This is compared to an approximate one-to-two ratio from a year earlier.   

• As the administration expands detention, it is simultaneously gutting oversight. The rapid growth of detention has been paired with deep cuts to internal watchdogs and new restrictions on congressional inspections. This erosion of oversight has consequences that extend beyond detention facilities themselves: as ICE is operating with fewer checks on its authority, aggressive interior enforcement in cities has led to preventable harm and deaths, underscoring how a lack of accountability is putting lives at risk.  

“The Trump administration continues to falsely claim it’s going after the ‘worst of the worst,’ but public safety is just a pretext for locking up immigrants and pushing them to abdicate their cases,” said Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council. “Horrific conditions inside detention facilities break people into accepting deportation which fuels the administration’s inhumane deportation quotas and goals.” 

The report profiles three people whose experiences illustrate the real-world impact of this historic expansion of detention: 

• A green card holder and father of two, detained by ICE at an airport because of a past conviction he was told would not jeopardize his legal status. ICE then neglected his medical issues for months while he was detained. 

• An asylum seeker who was granted humanitarian protection by an immigration judge, yet remains detained months later, without explanation, as ICE seeks to deport her to a third country, and who says she was treated better in federal prison when serving time for an immigration offense.  

• A DACA recipient, detained following a criminal arrest, who was transferred repeatedly across the country as ICE searched for available bed space and witnessed consistently poor conditions across multiple different detention centers. 

With billions of additional dollars already approved, the report warns that immigration detention is poised to grow even larger, deepening the human, legal, and financial costs for families, communities, and the country as a whole. 

“This is a system built to produce deportations, not justice,” said Reichlin-Melnick. “When detention becomes the default response to immigration cases, the costs are borne by everyone. Families are torn apart, due process is set aside, and billions of taxpayer dollars are wasted on these unnecessary and cruel policies that do nothing to increase public safety.”

The post Report: Immigration Detention Is Bigger, Harsher, and Less Accountable Than Ever  appeared first on American Immigration Council.

WASHINGTON DC & DECATUR, GA, December 15, 2025 — The American Immigration Council (the Council) and Welcoming America, two national nonprofits, are pleased to announce that over 10 local communities have been selected to receive Gateways for Growth Challenge (G4G) awards as part of Round VI of the initiative. Awardees will receive a mix of customized research, technical assistance, and planning support to develop strategies that ensure all residents — including immigrants — can succeed and fully contribute to their communities.

The 2026 awardees span both urban and rural communities across ten states and represent the broad range of welcoming work happening across the country led by local governments, nonprofits, chambers of commerce, and community coalitions. Some of these communities include:

• Arlington County, Virginia
• Charlotte, North Carolina
• Durham, North Carolina
• El Paso County, Texas
• Fort Bend County, Texas
• Johnson County, Kansas
• Lancaster, Pennsylvania
• Las Cruces, New Mexico
• Mahoning County, Ohio
• St. Louis, Missouri
• Wabash County, Indiana

“For nearly a decade, the Gateways for Growth Challenge has helped local communities quantify the impact of their immigrant populations and invest in welcoming policies and programs. We are excited to work with the new cohort in creating opportunity for all residents,” said Rich André, Director of State and Local Initiatives at the American Immigration Council.

“This cohort represents local leaders who are doing the day-to-day work of making their communities places where everyone can participate and succeed,” said Molly Hilligoss, senior network director of Welcoming America. “We’re proud to support them as they turn their welcoming values into action.”

Since 2016, G4G has supported more than 75 localities across 37 states. Participating communities have developed welcoming plans that address language access, workforce development, civic participation, and social cohesion. Many have gone on to pass welcoming resolutions, launch new programs, join the broader Welcoming Network, and achieve Certified Welcoming status—a national recognition for communities that meet benchmarks for inclusion and welcoming. For more information about Gateways for Growth, visit gatewaysforgrowth.org.

###  

About the Gateways for Growth Challenge 

The Gateways for Growth Challenge (G4G) is a competitive opportunity for localities to receive research support and technical assistance from the American Immigration Council and Welcoming America to improve immigrant inclusion in their communities. Learn more at gatewaysforgrowth.org.   

About Welcoming America

Welcoming America is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that leads a movement of inclusive communities becoming more prosperous by ensuring everyone belongs. Through the Welcoming Network, we work to change systems and culture by providing communities with the roadmap they need to create welcoming policies and share new approaches to inclusion to create an environment where everyone can truly thrive. Learn more at www.welcomingamerica.org. 

About the American Immigration Council

The American Immigration Council works to strengthen America by shaping how America thinks about and acts towards immigrants and immigration and by working toward a more fair and just immigration system that opens its doors to those in need of protection and unleashes the energy and skills that immigrants bring. The Council brings together problem solvers and employs four coordinated approaches to advance change—litigation, research, legislative and administrative advocacy, and communications. Follow us on Bluesky @immcouncil.org and on Instagram @immcouncil.

The post New Cohort Selected for the Gateways for Growth Challenge  appeared first on American Immigration Council.

Read the court order here and the opinion here.

The order specifically covers children who originally entered the United States as unaccompanied minors and who “age out” of the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) (the federal program that looks after unaccompanied children by placing them in shelters and then later with family and/or guardians).  

This federal court decision enforces a 2021 permanent injunction in Garcia Ramirez v. ICE, which requires ICE to comply with their statutory obligations by considering the least restrictive setting available for every unaccompanied child who turns18 and to make all age-outs eligible for alternatives to detention. 

“This ruling makes clear that ICE cannot secretly flout the law or blatantly ignore court orders,” said Suchita Mathur, senior litigation attorney with the American Immigration Council. “ICE tried to detain newly-18-year-olds as a matter of course. These are kids that ICE officers have found, in almost all cases, do not pose a danger or flight risk, with sponsors, families, and community support waiting for them. This decision puts a stop to that.” 

Under a new policy published October 1, ICE told shelters and attorneys that all unaccompanied children turning 18 would be transferred to adult detention, even when they had safe homes and sponsors waiting to receive them. Adult detention threatens the teenagers’ short- and long-term development. Currently, ICE is holding a record number of people in detention, fueling overcrowding and dehumanizing conditions like lack of adequate medical care, abusive treatment, and restricted access to legal and psychological help. The court found that automatically sending teens into adult detention, without considering safer, age-appropriate alternatives, is a violation of the law.  

“Today’s ruling sends a powerful message: ICE can’t put teenagers in dangerous, overcrowded facilities just because they turned 18,” said Mark Fleming, associate director of federal litigation at the National Immigrant Justice Center. “There are safer, lawful options that keep young people connected to school, family, and community. That’s what the law requires, and that’s what this order restores.” 

The court’s ruling requires ICE to immediately stop following its October 1 guidance and to remove anyone placed under detention as a result.

Read the court order here and the opinion here.

The post Federal Court Blocks ICE’s Unlawful Detention of Immigrant Teens Turning 18  appeared first on American Immigration Council.

READ THE REPORT HERE.

The report, Immigrant Workers and the Childcare Crisis: What’s at Stake for Families and the Economy, finds that immigrant workers make up 1 in 5 childcare workers nationwide, with even higher concentrations in major metro areas like Miami and San Jose. More than half are non-citizens and nearly a third are people who are undocumented, vulnerable to deportation or loss of work authorization.  

The report also features in-depth profiles of 10 childcare providers and parents whose livelihoods and family stability are already being shaken by enforcement crackdowns and visa uncertainty. 

“Working parents already feel the strain of a childcare system that’s barely holding together. Parents can’t clock in if they don’t have safe, stable childcare, and immigrants play a key role in providing that. Mass deportation pulls that foundation out from under families and jeopardizes parents’ ability to stay in the labor force,” said Jeremy Robbins, executive director of the American Immigration Council.  

EXPLORE THE DATA HERE.

The report documents how stepped-up enforcement has already disrupted childcare availability in several communities. In south Philadelphia, a daycare center serving predominantly low-income immigrant families saw enrollment plummet from 158 children to 97 after enforcement actions, forcing layoffs and classroom closures. At one Washington, D.C. preschool, teachers had to quit because of new barriers to maintain work authorization. 

Other key findings include: 

• 20.1 percent of childcare workers are immigrants: over 282,000 people, overwhelmingly women. 

• In cities like San Jose and Miami, immigrants make up over two-thirds of childcare workers. In Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, they make up nearly half. 

• Staffing shortages are already severe. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 160,200 childcare jobs will open each year over the next decade due to turnover. 

• Immigrant childcare workers overall are more likely to be self-employed and to work full-time, filling childcare jobs where hiring U.S.-born workers has proven difficult. 

• Aggressive immigration enforcement has already caused closures, empty classrooms, and absenteeism in daycare centers in some communities.  

• The report includes testimonies profiling 10 individuals, including childcare providers and parents, about how they would pay the price should the childcare system tighten further because of mass raids and more visa restrictions. “I want to be productive. I want to be part of the workforce,” said alias ‘Jen,’ one mother in New York City. “As things ratchet up, there’s always a little voice in my head, ‘Please, please don’t revoke visas.’ [But] if [my au pair] goes then I would have to quit my job.” 

READ THE REPORT HERE.

Disruptions to the U.S. childcare system stemming from Trump’s immigration policies will affect not only households, but the broader labor market as well. According to U.S. census data analyzed in the report: 

• In 2025, 12.8 million households with children under the age of 14, or 41.9 percent of those households, had at least one adult whose job was affected after losing access to childcare.  

• This includes 2.5 million households that used unpaid leave, 2 million households that cut work hours, 1.3 million households with adults who did not look for a job, and more than 600,000 households with adults who quit a job.  

“From hospitals to retail to tech, U.S. employers depend on parents being able to work,” said Nan Wu, director of research at the American Immigration Council. “Removing the workers who make childcare possible would choke off workforce participation and weaken our economy at a time when it’s already struggling.” 

The post New Report: Trump’s Mass Deportation Agenda Will Deepen the Childcare Crisis  appeared first on American Immigration Council.

But her husband’s job for 17 years had been with the United States, specifically, USAID. When the Taliban retook control of the Afghan government in 2021, he was placed on a death list, putting his entire family in danger.

Safia’s family eventually found safety in Houston. They are among the 50,500 Afghan refugees who have received the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV), a program created by Congress to help Afghans who worked for the U.S. government abroad.²

While the family is now safe, they are no longer economically secure. Attaining the licensure to work in their professions in the United States will take years. While he works at a lower-level job at an electronics company, the only childcare job she was able to find was as a low-paid helper at a center far from home. Without transportation, it took her too long to get to work.

“I worked one year in pre-K in Afghanistan,” Safia said. “I love working with children.” She found a free childcare training and licensing class at ECDC – Houston Multicultural Center, a nonprofit that supports refugees and immigrants. But under current funding requirements, the course was only open to Afghan refugees who arrived in the United States between 2021 and 2023. Safia arrived in 2024.

Earlene Leverett, a childcare entrepreneur, managed the ECDC childcare training program for 10 years, when it was operated by its affiliate The Alliance for Multicultural Community Services. She has seen the profound difference it can make, not only for refugees but for the broader community, as well.

“Childcare is in crisis,” she said. “Employers are finally realizing the impact that childcare has on the economy. Businesses have jobs, they need employees to fill those jobs, those employees need childcare.”

Leverett estimates that 350 to 400 immigrants graduated from the one-year program during her tenure. Some opened their own childcare businesses, creating options for parents who might not otherwise be able to find care. Most graduates used their licenses to secure employment at existing daycare centers, which often struggle to expand due to staffing shortages.

It’s a win for everyone, Leverett said. Parents who are already home with young children—most often mothers—can “add substantially to the household income.” So, too, can other mothers who need to take jobs outside the home and, in the case of immigrants, may prefer providers with a familiar cultural background. Employers—particularly in industries more heavily reliant on immigrant labor, like hospitality and healthcare—can access the workers they need.

The U.S. government provides some financial assistance to refugees when they first arrive in the country, but that assistance comes to a halt rather quickly. Nonprofits and others step in with language classes and job training with a single purpose: refugees must be able to support themselves within six months.

“In order to speed up this self-sufficiency goal, it takes everyone in the household working,” said Leverett. “When there is no childcare available to the employees then it becomes a huge economic issue.”

Leverett ran her own day care centers in Texas for 16 years. Immigrants, she said, have always filled “a big part of the industry as employees.”

Providing training for refugees like Safia to secure childcare licenses works, she said. “We saw that happen, the difference that it made in the community. Because that was one thing people needed was employment.”

Currently, Safia is working to improve her English and find another affordable program that will help her get a license to open a childcare facility. “I like children, I’m patient with children,” she said. “I really want to improve in this field and work with children.”

The post Caring for Children from Kabul to Houston  appeared first on American Immigration Council.

Nestled in a low-income, primarily immigrant neighborhood in south Philadelphia, the center provides job tips, educational sessions, donations, and more, in addition to childcare. It is one of three Children’s Playhouses in the city, all owned by Damaris, a businesswoman from New York City.

The center’s children are all U.S. citizens between the age of 0 and 5. Nearly all are from Hispanic or Asian immigrant families. Before the Trump administration’s immigration crackdowns, the center enrolled 158 children—the maximum number permitted. Now, it has 97. Damaris has had to close one classroom and lay off five teachers, all of whom are U.S. citizens and two of whom were born in this country. She worries about the absent children.

Even parents who still have valid immigration status “went into hiding,” she said. “There were so many policies at once that they didn’t know how they would be affected. They were afraid of dropping their children off at school and having ICE waiting for them.”

If the situation continues, Damaris wonders if she’ll have to shut this location down, a move that would cost 23 more teachers their jobs. “We haven’t been able to fill our classrooms—people are afraid,” she said. “Now I’m really second-guessing running the childcare center. If we can’t enroll, we can’t continue in business.”

But mostly, Damaris is worried about the families she no longer sees—anywhere. She does not see children out and about, or families at events. The adults don’t seem to be going to work; vans that used to bring residents to factory and construction jobs are nowhere to be seen. Some families have self-deported, she said: “Nobody wants to live in fear.”

“All of this stuff dismantles so much of the work that we’ve put into building up our community,” Damaris said. “These are hardworking people. They contribute to society. We [the daycare centers] help build that economic growth.”

And the children who are no longer at their preschool? Where are they? “I don’t know,” Damaris said. “I would love to know. I hope they’re OK.”

The daycare center provided those children with more than socialization and learning. Damaris regularly raises funds so she can give meals, diapers, infant formula, and clothing to families in need. “We like to fill in those gaps.”

“We know that most of the children are food-deprived,” Damaris said. “I pray that they’re OK, that they’re good and safe.”

The post Fear and Empty Classrooms: The Human Cost of Immigration Crackdowns appeared first on American Immigration Council.

Since the African country collapsed into civil war in 1991, the United States has offered refuge to many Somalis through Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which allows recipients to live and work in the United States while their country is considered too dangerous to return to.

Muna was one of them. She landed in San Diego in 1999, her 6-month-old baby in tow, knowing no one, knocking on doors to ask if anyone needed a babysitter. Now she is a U.S. citizen and runs her own daycare business. But it was a tough slog to get here.²

Muna’s story exemplifies the resilience and perseverance that is common among immigrants, as well as the role immigrant women often fill as caretakers to America’s children. “Everything is hard,” Muna said. “Nothing is easy to become an American and get your papers.”

In her first four years in the country, Muna lived in 20 different houses, working as a nanny and housekeeper at a starting wage of $6.45 per hour. Sometimes she slept on the floor. “When people see you don’t have nothing, they can do anything,” she said.

“I didn’t mind—but when they started hitting my daughter it was too much,” she said.

“Every house had kids, and the boys, some of them, would hit.”

While doing domestic work, Muna did manage to swing a little time for herself, during which she worked at a store within walking distance of the house. She saved enough money between the two jobs to rent an apartment, and settled into life as a full-time retail salesperson, working her way up to store manager. She met and married a U.S. citizen, had a second daughter, and became a naturalized citizen in 2023.

When she was ready to start her own business, in 2018, she turned to childcare. She opened a small daycare center in her home, licensed to care for eight children at a time. Her afternoon slots are always full—“I have to turn people away”—and she is saving to buy a bigger house so she can become licensed to watch more children. Her daughter works as her assistant.

“It’s a lot of kids to run,” she said, laughing. “But it’s worth it.”

As owner-operator, Muna tends to babies, drives children to and from school, brings kids to the park and the library, and helps them with their homework. She also serves on the board of Global Village, a commercial and residential housing project currently in development, and volunteers for the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans, where she helps new refugees. But for the first time since coming to America, she has weekends off.

“In the seven years, I know what the Saturday-Sunday thing is,” she said, laughing. “It’s so nice, so nice.”

The post From Babysitter to Business Owner: A Journey of Resilience and Care appeared first on American Immigration Council.

The model proved to be a success. Now, 37 years later, KidsPark is a national franchise, with daycare centers operating in nine states. Sisters Beth Christie and Heather Alanis jumped in 17 years ago, opening the first KidsPark center in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.¹

“We have families who use us five days a week. or parents who just drop in as needed,” said Beth.

KidsPark strives to support low- and middle-income parents, for whom standard childcare may be prohibitively expensive—potentially pushing them out of the workforce for years. Many parents manage to juggle conflicting work shifts to ensure one can always be with the kids. Even so, they still need affordable care during the overlap, when both are at work. “The hourly drop-off allows them to minimize their childcare costs,” said Beth.

Currently, parents pay $12 per hour for one child, and an additional $6 per hour for each sibling—less than many independent babysitters. “Having quality staff that can take good care of your children and keeping rates low for parents, it’s definitely a balancing act,” said Beth.

KidsPark typically hires young people, often college students. All the current teachers are in their 20s. The directors are in their 30s.

From the beginning, immigrants have been vital to the success of KidsPark Arlington. “We’ve always relied in the childcare industry on people who have come here from another country, or are first- or second-generation,” said Heather.

Often these young people are studying to become nurses or schoolteachers. Beth said, “It’s just fun to see caregiving as a personality type.”

“The young women who work for us tend to be very family oriented,” she said. “We have, over the years, hired cousins and sisters because we believe they work so well together, and all of them have come from immigrant families.”

Immigrants and children of immigrants also bring bilingual skills, which benefit children from all backgrounds, particularly in a diverse area like Dallas, where immigrant workers serve vital roles in construction, manufacturing, healthcare, and more.² “We want our staff to reflect our customers,” said Beth. “We’ve loved having teachers that are bilingual.”

“The teachers that have come from immigrant families have generally been the kindest, most diligent, hard workers,” said Beth. “I have found myself in awe of some of the young women who have come through the center, their work ethic. And they’ve brought so much love to the center.”

The post Supporting Working Families Through Flexible, Affordable Childcare appeared first on American Immigration Council.

Senior Fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick delivered oral testimony before Congress exposing skyrocketing “at-large” arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), profiling, wrongful detentions of U.S. citizens, and the urgent need for congressional reform.

What this testimony covers:

• ICE’s rapid expansion of “at-large” arrests — including a sharp rise in arrests of people with no criminal record.
• The spread of aggressive enforcement tactics like collateral arrests, roving patrols, and worksite raids.
• How appearance-based profiling has led to U.S. citizens and permanent residents being wrongly detained.
• The public-safety consequences of prioritizing immigration arrests over other federal law-enforcement needs.
• The urgent need for Congress to restrict overreach, require clear officer identification, and prohibit profiling.

The expansion of interior immigration enforcement doesn’t just affect noncitizens. As “at-large” arrests and aggressive enforcement tactics grow, more U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents are being caught up — often wrongfully — in sweeping immigration operations. That undermines trust in law enforcement, erodes civil liberties, and makes communities less safe for everyone.

Without legislative reform, this overreach risks permanently damaging the social fabric of immigrant and mixed-status communities across the country.

The post Testifying on Interior Immigration Enforcement: Citizen Arrests, DHS Overreach, and Erosion of Rights appeared first on American Immigration Council.