New York State Must Do More to Protect Immigrant Children

As a Vietnamese refugee who came to America at age 3 with little more than hope, I understand what’s at stake for immigrant families today. As a mom, what I’m witnessing now breaks my heart.

Parents across New York are keeping their children home from school—terrified that ICE officers might be waiting to scoop them up. I’ve seen them myself, stationed across from my children’s school. First-graders are missing the chance to learn to read. High-schoolers can’t prepare for college. Fear has replaced childhood.

When I served as an adviser to Senator Kristen Gillibrand on human trafficking prevention and unaccompanied-children services, I witnessed how fear-based policies tear families apart. Every day this year, we have seen horrifying policy choices, like the Trump administration stripping children of legal protections, imposing invasive requirements that make it highly risky and practically impossible for families to sponsor their children out to languish in detention for months because their relatives are too terrified to come forward. We’ve witnessed ICE attempts to mass-deport detained children in the middle of the night without their families’ or attorneys’ knowledge.

New York has the power to answer a fundamental question: What kind of state do we want to be? One that terrorizes children and families or one that knows immigrants make our melting pot stronger? At the very least, as New Yorkers we can ensure that anyone facing deportation has access to a lawyer by supporting legislation like the Access to Representation Act. If passed, this law would ensure no child ever faces deportation proceedings alone.

This is about basic human dignity. Let’s choose it.

Lisa do Hofflich, who describes herself as an anti-human-traffic advocate, previously ran for the NYS Senate in 2022.