With the House of Representatives scheduled to vote on fiscal year 2026 funding for the Department of Homeland Security this afternoon, First Focus Campaign for Children and the Coalition on Human Needs led 123 other national and local organizations in an email blast to lawmakers urging them to insist that any funding come with “meaningful, enforceable safeguards” for children. 

“The decisions before you will have profound impacts on children’s health, safety, stability, access to services, and lifelong opportunity, and they demand principled action grounded in evidence and compassion,” the advocates told all 435 members of the House of Representatives. 

“Across the country, ICE and CBP actions have disrupted families, traumatized children, and placed young lives at risk,” the email continued. “Detention and deportation separate children from parents and caregivers or place them in unhealthy environments, destabilizing households and causing lasting emotional and developmental harm.”

AFT, Children’s Defense Fund, the National Education Association, the National Organization for Women and UnidosUS were among the signatories.

The advocates also demanded specific protections for children, including an end to child and family detention, creation of a “best interests of the child” standard across all relevant policy frameworks, strengthening of the Flores Settlement and other minimum child welfare standards, and other measures. 

Read the complete email at First Focus Campaign for Children.

The Facts: Children and ICE