SEATTLE - It was a Thursday morning like any other: a mother was driving her 4-year-old son to his preschool in Issaquah.

But their routine ended very differently after she was pulled over by law enforcement officers in unmarked cars. They did not identify the agency they worked with, and told her she was being stopped for speeding.

The officers allowed the mother to drop the child off, following her to the Spanish-immersion preschool, where she asked the staff to let her inside, saying she believed the agents were with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The preschool staff declined.

Agents eventually detained the mother outside the preschool. They didn’t identify themselves as immigration agents until they had handcuffed her. She was deported in early November and is now back in her country of origin.

The immigration enforcement action has hit close to home for the child care industry in Washington, where many of the workers and many families include immigrants. Not only was the mother detained outside the preschool, but an armed agent rang the doorbell a few minutes later.

“It showed to many parents and providers that it's possible,” said Kawthar Abdullah, early learning campaign manager at OneAmerica. “And people just want to know their rights and what they can do in situations, if that occurs, to them or to their provider, to their center or in-home day care.”

Abdullah, of the Seattle-based immigrants’ rights organization, said requests for training on how to interact with immigration agents have increased in recent months, particularly after what happened in Issaquah.

For more than a decade, federal agencies followed guidance that deterred immigration authorities from making arrests in “sensitive” places like preschools, schools, hospitals and churches. Trump rescinded that guidance in January, and has escalated immigration enforcement across the country.

On Nov. 20, officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security visited a preschool site in Kennewick seeking to talk to a worker there about someone who was neither a student nor staff, according to the Kennewick School District. In early November, a child care worker in Chicago was forcibly arrested by immigration authorities in front of children at a center. In July, a father was arrested outside his child’s preschool in Beaverton, Ore.

Child care providers often have ties to immigrant communities. In Washington state, 26% of early educators were born outside the U.S., according to the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California, Berkeley.

The anxiety is also being felt by families who fear getting stopped by immigration authorities while taking their children to child care. This affects young children, too, who absorb what’s happening in their environment like sponges, experts say.

“The ICE actions are causing trauma and disruption to everyone that the child care system touches,” said Genevieve Stokes, director of government relations at Child Care Aware of Washington.

Fearful families

Alexis’ youngest child is two and a half, and she has sent a certified copy of the girl’s birth certificate to her child care provider.

Both the Pierce County mom and her daughter are U.S. citizens, but Alexis’ ex-husband, the child’s father, is a green-card holder. The Seattle Times is not using her full name because she fears her family members may be targeted by immigration enforcement.

Her ex takes care of the child for several days every other week, including bringing her to child care. But he expressed worry about doing so, especially after the Issaquah incident, Alexis said. She’s monitored the day care’s app to be sure their child was dropped off safely.

She worries if her ex-husband gets stopped by immigration authorities on the way to day care, no one will call her or check that their child is a U.S. citizen.

“She’s two and a half,” Alexis said. “She can’t even tell you her social security number or anything. She can’t even really tell you her last name.”

Workers’ worries

Laura runs a Yakima County child care center, which she sees as a community service.

Her center collects clothing donations, hosts a mobile dental clinic and connects families with other support like food banks. The Seattle Times is not using her full name or the name of her center because she’s concerned it will become a target for immigration enforcement.

The week after Trump’s January inauguration, a mother believed she saw immigration agents on her walk to drop off her child at Laura’s center. The mother was so distressed, despite being in the country legally, Laura said, a staff member gave her a ride back home. The next week, Laura went to a training on rights concerning immigration enforcement.

Her Yakima County child care program has printed and shared red “know your rights” information cards — which Laura says some family members have taken to their own workplaces. The center has also provided information on local legal-support services.

But the fear persists. Even her Latino staff members who were born in the U.S. are afraid of being targeted.

“It’s scary for people, just because of your skin color, even if you’re born here,” she said.

On Nov. 3, state Department of Children, Youth and Families Secretary Tana Senn acknowledged in a department newsletter that “the atmosphere of fear weighs heavily on communities and is leading to absences from work, school and child care.”

“Given recent events, we urge families of mixed immigration status to identify a caregiver for their children if they were to be detained,” the newsletter continued.

DCYF has cautioned providers not to share information about a child or child’s family with anyone, with exceptions for DCYF, the state’s Department of Health and “people directly and currently involved with the care of the child or currently involved with services provided to the child’s family.” Workers can stay silent and ask for a lawyer, the agency's guidance says.

“Workers do not have to hand over any IDs or papers to ICE,” the DCYF guidance says. “All workers have this right.”

If a provider is contacted or visited by ICE, Border Patrol or the Department of Homeland Security, they should report it right away to their program specialist at DCYF, the agency’s guidance says.

A spokesperson for DCYF said the agency had received three such reports in 2025: one from an applicant for a child care license who had been detained, one from a provider who reported that a parent had been detained outside their center (which DCYF confirmed was the Issaquah preschool detention), and a third from a provider who self-deported.

The Trump administration has said its increased immigration enforcement is targeting criminals, but the number of immigrants without criminal histories detained has soared since Trump took office in January, according to ICE data.

Child care workers at licensed facilities, as well as license-exempt in-home providers eligible to get state subsidies, must pass state criminal background checks, and the agency evaluates whether that information relates directly to child safety and well-being,” said Nancy Gutierrez, a spokesperson for DCYF.

Gutierrez said the agency's background check process does not verify a person’s immigration status or their eligibility to work in the U.S.

Susan Brown, founder of the Greater Seattle Child Care Business Coalition, emphasized that child care providers put the highest priority on children’s safety.

“We try to know as much as we can about all the things that will keep our kids and our staff and our families safe,” Brown said. “But at the end of the day, this is a situation that I think nobody ever dreamt of.”

Effects on kids

When the mother at Laura’s program feared spotting immigration officials on her way to day care in January, Laura was concerned about the impact on the child, who saw their mother crying.

“This will cause long-lasting trauma for families,” she said. “If parents are going around in fear and watching over their shoulders all the time, right? Can you imagine being a little child?”

Kathy Mulrooney is the director of infant and early childhood mental health, coordination and strategy at Zero to Three, a group that advocates for the needs of babies and toddlers. She’s also a licensed professional counselor in New Jersey, where she lives.

Mulrooney said there’s often the misconception that traumatic events don’t have as much of an impact on babies or toddlers — that they’re too young to understand.

“Actually, the impact is even stronger on our youngest children, because that’s when the brain is developing,” she said. “That’s when they are so reliant on caregiving relationships and the attachments that they’re forming in those early years, and so disruptions in those experiences and those relationships have not only immediate, but long-term effects.”

Preparing the providers

It remains to be seen what long-term impact these enforcement actions may have on the child care industry.

Anecdotally, Stokes said, Child Care Aware of Washington is hearing that enrollment is declining, particularly in communities with higher immigrant populations and where enforcement actions have been more common.

Abdullah said OneAmerica is encouraging providers to keep doors locked, have a sign indicating that a facility is private property, be in communication with an attorney or community-based organization and ask for a judicial warrant if immigration authorities approach.

Elena Carrasco, an infant and early childhood mental health consultant who works with Spanish-speaking families and providers across the state through the program Holding Hope, has been hosting evening support groups. A recent meeting drew about 17 providers.

Child care providers have faced many challenges over the years, but anxiety is high right now, and they’re looking for support and community, Carrasco said.

“We’re not fixing things, but listening to them voicing what is challenging, and in community, because I think what helps them often is to know that they’re not alone,” she said.

While the industry is experiencing stress surrounding immigration enforcement, Stokes noted the majority of facilities haven’t seen enforcement actions.

Child care is generally a very safe place for children, she said.

“Child care providers are getting up and going to work every day and providing a safe, caring, loving and joyous environment for kids, and that remains very true,” she said.

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