Children Thrive Action Network (CTAN) created this toolkit, which is being updated ad-hoc, to serve two purposes:
- Help service providers and community members speak out against immigration enforcement that harms children in immigrant families.
- Help parents, service providers, and community members protect families at risk of being torn apart by aggressive immigration enforcement.
Click through the sections below to explore these tools and resources.
Resources in Multiple Languages
Help children whose parents are facing deportation
Circulate resources to providers and mixed-status families:
- This tool from the National Immigration Legal Services Directory allows families to search for legal services by zip code.
- National Immigrant Justice Center’s Know Your Rights resources helps families plan ahead to ensure the safety of children and other dependent following the deportation of a parent or caretaker.
- The Immigrant Legal Resource Center also has a Know Your Rights Toolkit with links to videos, printable red cards in multiple languages and local resources, among other critical resources.
- CLINIC has an emergency preparedness web tool with information to assist families in all fifty states. They also have a Rapid Response Toolkit based on best practices and lessons learned from communities conducting rapid responses during ICE raids and arrests. It provides a plan of action for communities to support and guide people during and after a raid, as well as a how-to guide and a model notebook to help you build an inclusive rapid response team.
- The National Immigrant Justice Center published an explainer on what mass deportations might look like, and includes things you can do now to protect yourself and your loved ones.
- Recognizing that deportation/family separation is a major traumatic event in the life of a child, Zero to Three put together these resources for parents, providers, and others involved in protecting children’s mental health.
- Appleseed Network created a manual to help immigrants and allies develop plans to deal with financial and family issues, such as child custody, in the event of a family emergency such as deportation.
- The Women’s Refugee Commission published a series of resources on parental rights, family separation due to immigration, child welfare, and related issues.
Share resources for providers:
- Medical and health care providers will benefit from this guide, “Preserve Access to Care and Protect your Patients from Border Patrol and ICE Interference,” by Physicians for Human Rights, National Immigration Law Center, and ACLU Border Rights Center.
- CLASP’s guide on resources for providers on protecting locations from immigration enforcement contains a number of resources which will be continually updated.
- CICW drafted these tips for child welfare agencies preparing for or dealing with immigration enforcement that impacts their clients and communities.
Distribute resources for educators:
- American Federation of Teachers created these resources for educators to help families at risk of deportation. It includes proactive steps families can take to be better prepared, so that energies can be focused on fighting the deportation–if it happens.
- CLASP’s guide to creating “safe spaces” helps early childhood care providers learn how to set up their facilities so that families with young children are not subjected to immigration enforcement on their grounds.
- NILC’s Practice Advisory on the Legal Authority for “Sanctuary” School Policies outlines how schools can legally protect their students.
- The Department of Education’s Dear Colleague letter to educators, school leaders, and families includes an explanation of school districts’ responsibilities to serve immigrant students and provides a link to a directory of resources.
- For academics and those in higher education, visit our resource page for academics.
And, CICW drafted these tips for child welfare agencies preparing for or dealing with immigration enforcement that impacts their clients and communities.
Help my community prepare or respond to a workplace raid
The TN Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and NILC created a toolkit for communities dealing with mass worksite raids, based on their learnings following a 2018 immigration enforcement action in East Tennessee.
The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights has a list of immigration enforcement helplines by state as well as other hotlines and ways to receive help.
CLASP’s immigration raids resource page features materials focused on protecting children’s wellbeing when parents are arrested in an immigration raid
NILC & NELP have a Guide for Employers: What to Do if Immigration Comes to Your Workplace.
In addition, the National Immigration Project published a community explainer on the ongoing harms caused by worksite raids in central Mississippi in 2019.
AILA has a web page of raids resources (last updated in 2018) that includes guidance for both lawyers and community members.
Help immigrants learn their rights in the United States and how to protect them
Resources in Multiple Languages
Printable resources about immigrants’ rights under U.S. law are available in Amharic; Arabic; Bangla/Bengali; Burmese; Chinese (Simplified, Traditional); Congolese; Creole (Haitian); English (ACLU); English (UndocuBlack); Farsi; French; Gujarati; Hebrew; Hindi; Hmong; Indonesian; Karen; Khmer; Korean; Maya Mam; Nepali; Pashto; Portuguese; Punjabi; Somali; Spanish; Swahili; Tagalog; Tigrinya; Urdu; Vietnamese; and Yoruba.
Educate the public and policymakers about the impact of immigration enforcement on children
Write a Letter to the Editor or Op-Ed and submit it to your local newspaper. Click here to learn how to write and submit an op-ed and click here for basics on writing a Letter to the Editor. Talking points from the 2016-2020 administration are available here.
Read and share this report with your Members of Congress: CLASP, “The Day That ICE Came: How Worksite Raids Are Once Again Harming Children and Families,” Talking points from the 2016-2020 on raids are available here.
Tell your Members of Congress to do everything in their power to prevent mass deportations, including increasing funding for this harmful, inhumane practice. Read and share this factsheet on the impact of parental deportations on children, and this report on the harm of immigration enforcement on children.
Join us at the Children Thrive Action Network! CTAN is a network of advocates and service providers at the national, state, and local levels. Our mission is to defend and support children in the United States in immigrant families. Organizations who want to work as a network to further this goal can join CTAN here.