June is Immigration Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the diversity of people and cultures that have made America great. Yet this year, this celebration is muted by current events.
More than 40 percent of U.S. citizens — including me — can trace their ancestry back to immigrants who arrived in the United States through Ellis Island. But today, many immigrant families are living with fear and uncertainty amid sweeping changes to immigration policies and police-state crackdowns on enforcement.
The number of ICE arrests more than quadrupled during the first year of President Trump’s second term, with a record number of women and children — including babies and toddlers — in ICE detention. According to the Women’s Refugee Commission, at least 11,000 children experienced the arrest and detention of an immigrant parent in the first seven months of 2025.
The impact on mothers has been especially severe. During that same period, the number of detained mothers increased by more than 300 percent. A recent report from the Brookings Institution estimates that as many as 145,000 U.S.-citizen children may have experienced the arrest or detention of a parent.
This month, NOW members are standing with immigrant women, calling for the reinstatement of protections to help immigrant survivors escape abuse, stay safe, and seek justice. Immigrant women are particularly vulnerable to abusers who manipulate survivors’ status to wield control and keep them from reporting violence or seeking help.
We need to stop punishing victims over perpetrators. Immigrant women deserve access to support services, legal protections, and pathways to safety without the constant threat of deportation.
They also deserve access to healthcare without fear. Reproductive health providers report that immigrant patients are missing prenatal appointments, leaving prescriptions unfilled, delaying emergency care, and, in some cases, fearing both entering and leaving hospitals without their newborns during childbirth.
Immigrant women and families are no less deserving of dignity, rights, and protections than anyone else. Their future – and in some cases, their very survival — must not be politicized or used to deepen division.
This Immigration Heritage Month, NOW reaffirms our enduring belief that diversity is our strength. We are stronger when every person has the opportunity to live safely, contribute fully, and pursue their future free from fear.