A jump in immigration enforcement arrests under the Trump administration is having a detrimental impact on America’s child care system, reducing the number of immigrant workers available and prompting mothers with young children to leave their jobs as they scramble for stable care.

That’s according to a report released Wednesday by the Better Life Lab at the nonprofit New America, which examined how increased arrests during the first half of the year by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has had a ripple effect on a women-led child care workforce where about 1 in 5 workers are immigrants.

The report estimates there are roughly 39,000 fewer foreign-born child care workers since Trump took office in January. There are also 77,000 fewer American mothers of preschool-aged children in the workforce since that time, a result that researchers found is tied to the impact of ICE arrests. Mothers have already been exiting the workforce in droves.

“It’s not surprising that we find that disruptions to the child care market vis-à-vis an increase in immigration enforcement has led to a decline in the number of foreign-born workers, and because of the disruptions in the child care market, this has led to spillovers in the labor market for mothers with kids more generally,” said Chris M. Herbst, one of the authors of the report and a professor of public policy at Arizona State University whose research includes the economics of child care. “These kinds of immigration-induced disruptions have had negative labor market implications.”

The group analyzed federal labor statistics and newly compiled ICE arrest data between September 2023 and July 2025 and found that immigrant labor — both among foreign-born and U.S.-born child care workers — decreased as arrests spiked this year and workers tried to avoid being targeted by ICE agents. The report estimates ICE arrests rose more than threefold between December 2024 and June of this year — from just over 8,300 to more than 29,000.

The dynamics also appear to be shifting some workers away from formal center- and home-based employment settings toward private households in work as a babysitter, nanny or au pair. Those shifts may reduce the total number of spots a day care can offer.

Read the full article about ICE arrests and child care by Barbara Rodriguez at The 19th.