How Can I Protect My Children and Family During Immigration Detention or Removal?

A parent's detention can leave a caregiver needing to handle school, medical care and court dates immediately. A useful family plan identifies a trusted adult, gives that person the documents needed for everyday decisions, and preserves the parent's ability to participate in decisions about the child. ICE has a dated parental-interests directive, while California has separate caregiver tools. Neither replaces individualized immigration or family-law advice.

Build a family communication and care plan

Choose a caregiver the child knows and confirm that the person can be reached at any hour. Write down the child's school, medications, allergies, doctors and emergency contacts. Give the caregiver the parent's full name, date and country of birth and A-number if available; those details help with ICE's detainee locator. Keep a paper copy as well as a secure digital copy, because a detained parent may not retain a phone.

ICE's July 2025 Directive 11064.4 on parental and guardian interests says officers should accommodate a covered parent's efforts to arrange alternative care at arrest and document that decision. It contains qualifications when safety or neglect concerns arise. A practical plan can help the parent explain who will care for the child and how that person can be contacted.

Preserve identity, custody, and court documents

Collect birth certificates, existing custody or guardianship orders, school and medical information, and any family-court or child-welfare hearing notice. Provide copies rather than handing away the only originals. If someone else will handle school and health decisions, review the California Courts' caregiver guidance. It explains that a Caregiver's Authorization Affidavit can let a caregiver with whom the child lives enroll the child in school and consent to school-related medical care; a relative caregiver may have broader medical authority. The affidavit does not transfer custody and may be cancelled by a parent. Check the current form and the receiving school's or provider's requirements before relying on it.

A power of attorney or caregiver affidavit is not the same as a custody order. If another parent, guardian, or court order has legal authority, ask a California family-law professional which document is appropriate before relying on a form.

ICE parental-interest procedures and family court

Directive 11064.4 covers certain parents and legal guardians of minor children. Under section 5.3, ICE field personnel generally must refrain from a subsequent transfer out of the area where the child or a family proceeding is located, subject to operational, exceptional-circumstance and legal exceptions; a transfer closer to a child may be considered when feasible. Section 5.4 addresses participation in family-court, child-welfare or guardianship proceedings when needed to maintain or regain custody, but requires timely notice to ICE and evidence such as a hearing notice or order. Section 5.5 addresses regular visitation, including a contact visit within the first 30 days on written request where the facility has no ordinary contact visits, and remote contact when in-person visitation is not feasible. Give counsel and ICE the relevant orders and dates. ICE calls its field contacts Detained Parent Field Points of Contact; its current parental-interest page directs inquiries through a local Community Relations Officer or its ERO contact form.

These are internal agency procedures, not a guarantee of release, a particular facility or a custody outcome. ICE expressly says the directive creates no enforceable private right. It includes Form 71-078 for documenting a caregiver designation at arrest and addresses care or travel arrangements for children when a covered parent faces removal. A parent facing a termination-of-rights hearing should tell immigration and family-law counsel immediately and ask what notice, documentation and court participation are needed.

Questions that require individualized state-law advice

Find out whether a custody case is already pending, whether a temporary guardian is needed, and what authority the caregiver needs to speak to a school or clinician. Confirm who may consent to treatment beyond school-related care and who may travel with the child. An immigration lawyer and a California family-law lawyer may need to coordinate; immigration detention does not itself resolve custody, visitation or guardianship under state law.

A California family-preparedness checklist

• Name a trusted caregiver and backup, with reliable telephone numbers.
• Keep each child's school, clinician, medication and emergency-contact information current.
• Copy custody orders, birth certificates and any hearing notice; record the next family-court date.
• Ask which California caregiver document fits the actual living arrangement and court orders.
• Give counsel the parent's A-number, detention location and the family's court documents.
• Record each ICE facility and family-court contact, date and response.

Review the plan with the people who would actually carry it out. It should give the child continuity while preserving the parent's voice and the court's authority over legal custody.