August 19, 2025
Children’s Rights has filed a public comment calling on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to withdraw its policy change barring certain immigrants from at least 13 public programs. These include child and family programs like Head Start, community health centers, behavioral health clinics, and family supports designed to prevent children from entering the foster system and keep families together.
“Penalizing children for their or their parents’ immigration status is cruel. Children are dependent on their families, communities, and the social infrastructure around them,” said Sandy Santana, executive director of Children’s Rights. “Through this policy change, HHS is retreating from its responsibility to support children and families and disregarding the long-term social and economic harms that arise from limiting access to vital health and social services.”
HHS’s abrupt and unprecedented policy change makes it harder for families to obtain basic supports. As Children’s Rights highlights in its comment, this will only deepen inequities immigrant families face in accessing critical services. The affected programs offer access to early childhood education, pediatric care, prenatal services, behavioral health supports, developmental screenings, and more. Blocking access to these and other programs undermines efforts to keep families safely together – instead laying the groundwork for more family separations, which have lasting and damaging effects on children.
HHS’s policy punishes children for their immigration status, undermines family stability, and harms entire communities. Children’s Rights calls on HHS to reverse this policy and commit to policies that uphold child and family well-being.