Amid ICE raids, bill looks to keep children away from foster care

What happens to the children whose parents, guardians, or family members are detained or deported abruptly? 

In Los Angeles, immigrant rights and social justice organizations have begun mobilizing in support of legislation that could help equip immigrant and mixed-status families to have the tools needed to prepare for potential separations in the face of rising immigration enforcement raids that have taken the region by storm over the last few months. 

The bill in Los Angeles

Last week, numerous local organizations gathered to rally in support of Assembly Bill 495 (AB 495), the Family Preparedness Plan Act of 2025, which looks to strengthen family stability and protect parental rights when families face deportation.

As recently reported by CALÓ News, it is one of the current bills waiting for signature and approval from Governor Gavin Newsom. If passed, the bill would establish a new short-term joint guardianship process, where parents would be allowed to designate a temporary caregiver with a court order, as well as expand the temporary guardian designation to include godmothers, second cousins and even close family friends. 

In addition, the bill would also require schools and daycare facilities to distribute guidance for families to be prepared in times of crises like family separations.

Angelica Salas, executive director of CHIRLA, talked about the consequences of family separations and the chaos that follows when families are torn apart. 

“One of the untold tragedies of the current hardline approach to immigration enforcement by the Trump Administration is the uprooting of men, women and children from their communities and the chaos that ensues after a head of household is taken and children are left behind to fend for themselves,” she said. “This type of cruelty has no place in America.” 

Salas also said the bill gives many parents hope, even after risking deportation. “AB 495 offers a glimmer of hope. Parents will not lose their rights, and they will know someone of their choosing is caring for their children,” she said. 

Family separation at large

When a parent or guardian is detained or deported, the child's outcome can be uncertain. Today, in the United States, more than 16.7 million people share a home with at least one family member, often a parent, who is undocumented, according to the American Immigration Council and about six million of them are children under the age of 18. 

As stated by the council, between 2013 to 2018 ICE deported more than 231,000 people who reported having at least one U.S.-citizen child. In 2019, ICE also deported 27,980 people with U.S.-born children. 

“While the government does not track whether U.S.-citizen children stay in the U.S. or leave with a deported parent, both scenarios occur and pose challenges,” the American Immigration Council states on its website. 

Many kids face relocation to their parents' country or staying in the U.S. with a designated guardian. If these plans are not arranged, they have a high possibility of ending up in foster care or the child welfare system, a system that in L.A. is oversaturated and outdated. 

Foster care in L.A.

Los Angeles County has the largest concentration of foster youth in the country, with more than 30,000 children in foster care. The majority of them, or approximately 28,000 of these children, are in the care of the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), which is currently under a 2023 lawsuit for allegedly falling short in the treatment and care of foster youth, many of whom come from low-income communities of color.

Assemblywoman Celeste Rodriguez (D–43rd District), author of the state bill, joined immigrant rights advocates in L.A. last week to urge Newsom to sign the bill, co-sponsored by the Alliance for Children’s Rights,Public Counsel and CHIRLA. 

“Families are enduring the unthinkable right now—separation from their children,” Rodriguez said. “AB 495 empowers parents to make arrangements and preserve their parental rights so that California’s kids are not left with strangers and instead will be cared for by people they already know and love. While the Trump administration is fearmongering and disappearing our community members, California must step up. We have a moral duty to expand protections for our immigrant and mixed-status families.” 

Deportations

According to data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), two million illegal aliens have been removed or have self-deported since January 20, 2025, including an estimated 1.6 million who have voluntarily self-deported, along with more than 400,000 deportations. 

“The numbers don’t lie: two million illegal aliens have been removed or self-deported in just 250 days— proving that President Trump’s policies are working and making American communities safe,” assistant secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, said. “Ramped-up immigration enforcement targeting the worst of the worst is removing more and more criminal illegal aliens off our streets every day and is sending a clear message to anyone else in this country illegally: Self-deport or we will arrest and deport you.”

But immigrant rights organizations say the deportations have been targeting hard-working people without criminal records, as well as anyone else, based on their race, skin color or spoken language.

 “Family separations are happening again, with children coming home from school to find their parents gone,” said Sharon Balmer Cartagena, directing attorney at Public Counsel. “Now more than ever, California needs to improve the legal tools families can use to plan for these separations and ensure they are not permanent.” 

Newsom will either have to sign or veto AB 495, along with a list of other legislation, in the coming weeks.

To read more about the bill, click here.