FROM SARA CAMPOS, SENIOR PROGRAM OFFICER, GROVE FOUNDATION AND REBECA RANGEL, SENIOR DIRECTOR, ASSET FUNDERS NETWORK
MARCH 2026

This is the second post in an ongoing Bay Area AFN Short Take series on immigration and economic security in Silicon Valley. Read part one: Philanthropy’s Critical Role at the Intersection of Housing and Immigrant Rights in Silicon Valley. 

Silicon Valley is home to one of the most economically dynamic—and economically unequal—regions in the world. At the heart of this paradox are immigrant families, whose children are growing up in communities where prosperity and precarity exist side by side. In both Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, more than 50% of children have at least one immigrant parent. These children are not on the margins of Silicon Valley’s future. They are its future.

Yet, federal immigration policies and enforcement are creating cascading barriers to the economic security, stability, and mobility of these families. These barriers extend far beyond legal status and are harming the next generation. A recent briefing brought together legal experts, education leaders, state policy analysts, and children’s advocates to examine these impacts and make recommendations for what funders can do now.

A Crisis with Deep Economic Roots

Mario Lopez, Policy Analyst Liaison for California Senator Dave Cortese, grounded the conversation in striking economic data: undocumented Californians pay $8.5 billion annually in state and local taxes, and immigrant communities generate more than $1 trillion in economic output annually. These families are not outside the economy—they are essential to it. Yet as Alison Kamhi of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) described, “The administration is attacking on three fronts simultaneously: restricting children’s access to immigration relief, escalating interior enforcement, and expanding information-sharing across federal agencies.” As Neha Desai of the National Center for Youth Law further observed, “The immigrant rights field spent 20 years carefully building protections for immigrant children. Virtually all of it has been undone in the past nine months.”

The Economic Toll on Families and Children
Food and Nutrition Security

Federal policy changes under HR-1 are cutting off food assistance to an estimated 395,000 undocumented California residents. Critically, these are not the only families who are affected. Mixed-status families in which some members may be eligible are increasingly afraid to apply. The chilling effect thus affects an estimated 2 million people, the majority of them Latino community members.

Healthcare Access

Immigrant families in Silicon Valley face a compounding healthcare crisis driven by cuts at both the federal and state levels. Federally, HR-1 strips Medicaid and CHIP coverage from refugees, asylees, humanitarian parolees, trafficking survivors, and other immigrants previously covered under humanitarian protections—among the most vulnerable people in the country. California’s own budget compounds the damage: the state has frozen new Medi-Cal enrollment for undocumented Californians and plans to impose a monthly premium that applies exclusively to undocumented enrollees and certain other immigrants—meaning these families must pay for health care that is free for all other Medi-Cal recipients.

Early Childhood and Education

A federal judge recently blocked a Trump administration directive that, for the first time in Head Start’s 60-year history, sought to exclude undocumented families from the program. While the legal block is temporary, it reflects the high-stakes policy that Juan Cruz, Franklin-McKinley School District Superintendent, described as already reshaping behavior on the ground: families are declining to enroll children in preschool and keeping older children home when enforcement fears spike. In ADA-funded districts—typically the highest-need districts that rely on state rather than local property tax funding—chronic absenteeism translates directly into budget shortfalls that reduce educational resources for all students.

Blocked Pathways to Legal Status and Work Authorization

One of the most economically consequential changes has been the quiet termination of deferred action for children approved for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS)—a form of immigration relief designed specifically for children who have been abandoned, abused, or neglected. Due to visa backlogs, approved children often wait years for their green cards; the Biden administration’s deferred action policy allowed those children to obtain work authorization and protected them from deportation while they waited for the relief. Its termination leaves approved youth in legal limbo, unable to work legally or pursue opportunities requiring legal status, and thus vulnerable to labor exploitation. Compounding this, HR 1 increased the cost of securing and maintaining legal status, placing it out of reach for many families. For the first time, Congress has imposed fees on the very relief pathways that protect vulnerable children who’ve suffered harms: $250 for SIJS applications and $100 for asylum applicants (plus a $102 annual asylum fee and $560 for an initial work permit). Taken together, these fees impose a steep and recurring financial barrier for the lowest-income families, making the United States one of only three countries out of 147 nations that charge an asylum fee at all.

Escalating Enforcement and Its Economic Ripple Effects

Enforcement tactics have intensified in ways that directly destabilize family economic security and well-being. ICE has rescinded longstanding policies prohibiting enforcement in sensitive locations such as schools and places of worship. ICE agents are free to wait outside schools. So-called “wellness checks” on unaccompanied minors have been used to enforce deportation orders and detain family members who come forward to reunite with their children—creating a chilling effect on reunification and promoting family separation. Moreover, when a primary earner is detained or deported, families frequently lose their income overnight, triggering rapid slides into eviction and displacement. As Jenny Horne of Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County put it: “Immigration status profoundly affects young people’s ability to work and succeed, creating a two-generation economic impact that extends well beyond the immediate crisis.”

The Human and Developmental Costs

Economic security cannot be separated from psychological wellbeing. Neha Desai of the National Center for Youth Law described advocates now fighting just to maintain children’s access to the most basic necessities in federal custody—clean water, sunlight, adequate medical care. Desai also flagged a deeply troubling enforcement trend: reports of children being coerced into signing “voluntary departure” papers without an attorney or immigration judge present. By not allowing them legal counsel, Kamhi noted the government is actively misleading children. They are not providing them with information on the permanent bars to returning to the U.S. or with information on the lawful relief options they or their families may otherwise be entitled to pursue.

Even more troubling is the fear children suffer as a result of increased enforcement. Even citizen children are affected. Superintendent Cruz described children arriving at school consumed by a question no child should have to ask: “At the end of the day, will my parents be there?”

What’s Working: Promising Models for Funders to Support
Rapid Response Hotlines

Community rapid-response hotlines, staffed largely by volunteers, connect families to legal support and housing stabilization before enforcement crises spiral into eviction or prolonged separation.

Legal Services Collaboratives as One-Stop Economic Stabilizers

The United Coalition for Immigrant Services—a collaborative of 16 organizations across San Mateo and Santa Clara counties—offers coordinated, flexible infrastructure with warm internal referrals across organizations, not restricted by population type or relief category. For funders, one investment reaches families across multiple crisis types simultaneously.

Impact Litigation

Courts remain a critical line of defense. Desai pointed to a recent midnight court victory securing a Temporary Restraining Order as evidence that legal challenges can and do succeed. Funding impact litigation is a direct investment in protecting families’ economic futures.

State-Level Policy

Several bills pending on the Governor’s desk offer direct protections for children and families: AB 49 would establish California Safe Haven Schools (barring immigration officers from school sites without a judicial warrant); SB 98 would require schools to notify parents of confirmed ICE presence; and SB 635 would prohibit local authorities from collecting immigration data when enforcing sidewalk vending regulations.

Notably, Governor Newsom recently signed AB 495, the Family Preparedness Plan Act, into law. The legislation supports parents’ rights by allowing them to designate a trusted caregiver for their children in the event of family separation due to immigration enforcement, and prohibits licensed childcare facilities and state preschools from collecting immigration-related information from families.

Funding Recommendations for Asset-Building Funders
Legal Infrastructure
  • Fund deportation defense, affirmative applications for immigration status, employment authorization support, and know-your-rights education simultaneously—recognizing that legal status is the foundation of economic participation.
Rapid Response and Economic Stability Funds
  • Support community-led emergency funds that prevent the income shocks of enforcement actions from cascading into eviction, food insecurity, and educational disruption.
Fee Assistance
  • Explore funding to cover immigration application fees that currently bar low-income families and children from accessing the relief they are legally entitled to pursue.
The Stakes for Asset-Building Philanthropy

The challenges facing immigrant children in Silicon Valley are not peripheral to the concerns of asset-building funders—they are central to them. Economic security begins in early childhood. Economic mobility depends on educational attainment. Economic justice requires that every child, regardless of their family’s immigration status, has access to the foundational resources that make it possible to thrive. The families most affected by these policies are also among the most economically essential to the region. What happens to them happens to all of us.

“Unprecedented times call for unprecedented investment. Kelly Batson, Chief Community Impact Officer, United Way Bay Area

Kelly Batson from the United Way said she was not an immigration funder, but funding for these programs is essential. Funders have the opportunity—and the responsibility—to meet this moment with flexible, multi-year support for the organizations doing this work, and with the courage to invest at the intersection of immigration, economic security, and children’s wellbeing.

This blog is a recap of a briefing held on September 16, 2025, co-sponsored by Bay Area Asset Funders Network, the City of San Jose, the Emerging Bilingual Collaborative, the Grove Foundation, Northern California Grantmakers, United Coalition for Immigrant Services, and United Way Bay Area.