Since the Trump administration sent 2,000 immigration officers to Minneapolis a few weeks ago, child care workers have been on high alert. Immigration officials did that shown in daycare centers across Minnesota, leaving many childcare workers afraid to show up for work. Childcare providers, who have long faced funding challenges and staffing shortages, are now forced to figure out how to protect their workers while continuing to provide an essential service to families.
Today, many of these centers — at least 50 providers, according to the child care coalition Kids Count on Us — have closed their doors to participate in a statewide economic blackout dubbed the “crisis.” Day of Truth and Freedom. The collective action is intended to protest ICE’s presence in the state by halting all economic activity for the day.
For childcare workers, the stakes are high: A viral YouTube video that circulated in December put a target on their backs, alleging that Somali-run daycare centers were committing fraud and misusing government funding. The video has since been debunked, but the damage has already been done: the Trump administration has issued a freeze on $10 billion in federal funding for child care and social services in Minnesota, along with four other states. (A federal judge has temporarily blocked the freeze, and the states in question have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration.)
“From the beginning, child care and the ICE operation have been very closely linked,” said Meredith Loomis Quinlan, director of child care at advocacy group Community Change. “There are threats of these frozen funds, and at the same time their colleagues are being targeted by ICE. These child care providers have really stood together – and the child care movement of parents and providers is a real core [part] of what is happening in Minnesota right now.”
Many of them believe it is essential that they fight back against both ICE and the looming threat of a funding freeze. That’s why Kayley Spencer and Megan Schmitz, directors of a northern Michigan daycare center, decided to close their daycare for the day.
“We have connections throughout the country, [and] Other providers and families are experiencing this very real heaviness around the fear of going to school, the fear of going to work and the fear of leaving their home,” said Schmitz. “We had to show solidarity and that we will not tolerate our neighbors, families and other providers being targeted in that way.”
While their staff have not been directly targeted so far, they have raised questions about how the center would handle any encounters with ICE and introduced protocols accordingly. “That is something that, as a childcare organization, I never thought I would ever have to deal with,” says Schmitz. “What if they do show up? So it was really important for us to have those protocols in place so that our staff feels safe coming to work.”
This day of action is also intended to draw attention to the federal funding freeze, which could leave many child care providers struggling to keep their doors open. “We operate on razor-thin margins,” says Spencer, noting that their center has six families who rely on the state’s child care system. “If you lose those six families – even just one – you run the risk of them being closed down permanently.”
Access to child care allows countless parents to stay in the workforce, and closing child care is not a decision that providers take lightly. Spencer and Schmitz spoke candidly about why they felt it was important to participate and why collection action was critical at this time.
“We are very transparent with our families about the fact that this is not just an isolated incident,” Schmitz said. “If we don’t do something, we are in the midst of childcare collapse – and we are already at great risk of that every day, and this is just another way of not providing childcare [providers] the funding and resources they so desperately deserve and need.”
Spencer and Schmitz say they have had the support and understanding of many of the families they serve — and some of them, small business owners, have also closed their doors for the day in solidarity. “[As] Our only goal is to provide safe places for these children – and now they are being targeted, and that is not okay,” said Schmitz. “This is a small way of showing support, but we knew we had to do it.”
These actions extend beyond Minnesota, as child care workers across the country find ways to show their support. Community Change is working with grassroots organizations in many states who are organizing events or taking other actions — from protesting ICE facilities to closing their centers in solidarity — to draw attention to what’s happening in Minnesota. Meanwhile, child care providers and advocates in Minnesota continue to pressure Republican lawmakers to maintain the federal funding that is so crucial for centers to continue serving families.
“People may feel hopeless or scared right now, but there are so many ways to stand up for our neighbors and each other,” said Loomis Quinlan. “So we’re just trying to encourage more people to join our movement.”
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