IMMIGRATION RAIDS' TOLL ON CHILD CARE

Not long after President Trump took office, the staff at CentroNía bilingual preschool in Washington began rehearsing what to do if Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents came to the door.

- BY MORIAH BALINGIT AND JENNY GOLD

As ICE became a regular presence in their Latino neighborhood in the summer, teachers stopped taking children to nearby parks, libraries and playgrounds that had once been considered an extension of the classroom.

And in October, the school scrapped its beloved Hispanic Heritage Month parade, when immigrant parents typically dressed their children in costumes and soccer jerseys from their home countries. ICE officers had begun stopping staff members, all of whom have legal status, and school officials worried about drawing more unwelcome attention.

In California, where the immigration crackdown began in June, childcare facilities have experienced months of increased absences among students and staff.

Trump’s push for the largest mass deportation in history has had an outsize effect on the childcare field, which is heavily reliant on immigrants and already strained by a worker shortage.

Immigrant childcare workers and preschool teachers, the majority of whom are working and living in the U.S. legally, say they are racked by anxiety over possible encounters with ICE officials. Some have left the field, and others have been forced out by changes to immigration policy.

At CentroNía — and elsewhere — ICE’s presence and the fear it generates have changed how many schools operate.

"That really dominates all of our decision making,” said Myrna Peralta, the chief executive of CentroNía.

The childcare industry depends on immigrants

Schools and childcare centers were once off limits to ICE officials, in part to keep children out of harm’s way. But those rules were scrapped not long after Trump's inauguration this year. Instead, ICE officials are urged to exercise “common sense.”

In October, ICE officials arrested a teacher inside a Spanish immersion preschool in Chicago.

The event left immigrants who work in child care, along with the families who rely on them, frightened and vulnerable.