ICE surge worsens child care staffing crunch in Minnesota

The federal immigration crackdown is deepening staffing shortages at Twin Cities child care centers, forcing some providers to cut hours or close classrooms as immigrant workers stay home out of fear.

Why it matters: The growing shortages in Minnesota's already understaffed child care industry could force some parents to leave the workforce to care for their kids, a recent national report suggests.

The latest: The anxieties stem from multiple reports of parents and staff encountering federal agents around child care centers in recent weeks.

• ICE officers removed a teacher from her car just outside the Minneapolis location of Jardin Spanish Immersion Academy, where she was about to begin work, the Star Tribune reported.
• One anonymous Spanish immersion child care center told KARE11 that agents detained multiple workers who had legal work authorization in the center's parking lot.
• The leader of another unidentified center told KSTP that "nearly half of her staff has stopped coming to work."

What they're saying: Dawn Uribe, who owns four Mis Amigos Preschool locations in the Twin Cities, told MPR News she set up a food pantry for staff who aren't working.

• "Our entire admin team has been in classrooms covering breaks," so her centers don't fall below their required staff ratios. "If we don't have enough staff, we have to close classrooms," Uribe told MPR.

The other side: In a statement, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin defended federal agents' work and reiterated the claim that they're arresting criminals.

• "A HUGE victory for public safety," McLaughlin said.

The big picture: In Minnesota, 14% of the early education workforce was born outside the U.S. — and data analyzed by the think tank New America suggests their fears about going to work will have ripple effects.

By the numbers: Nationwide, from January to July 2025 — the early days of the Trump administration's crackdown — about 39,000 foreign-born child care workers dropped out of the workforce, the report's authors concluded.

• During that period, 77,000 U.S.-born working mothers with preschool-aged children also left the workforce, New America estimated. (There were around 7.7 million working moms with 0- to 5-year-old kids.)

The intrigue: Over the same time span, the number of working mothers of young children dropped 3 percentage points, to its lowest rate since 2021.

• The decline has been primarily driven by white mothers and those who are highly educated leaving the workforce, according to the New America report.

The bottom line: There's no shortage of theories as to why women are quitting their jobs.

• That said, the New America report provides some of the first evidence that immigration enforcement's squeeze on child care availability is contributing to the drop-off, co-author and Arizona State University professor Chris Herbst said.

Editor's note: This story was updated to add McLaughlin's statement.