At Subcommittee Hearing, Democrats Slam Republicans’ Cruel Plan to Kick Kids Out of Schools

Washington, D.C. (March 18, 2026)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, led Democrats in a hearing examining the damage Republicans’ vindictive anti-immigration campaign has had on America’s children. 

The hearing included testimony from Thomas A. Saenz, President and General Counsel, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF); Matt O’Brien, Deputy Executive Director, Federation for American Immigration Reform; Mandy Drogin, Senior Fellow, Government Reform & Oversight Coalition, Texas Public Policy Foundation; and James Rogers, Senior Counsel, America First Legal.

Republicans want to kick kids out of schools.

• Ranking Member Raskin said: “Our colleagues want to revisit a 44-year-old Supreme Court decision, with the aim of kicking tens of thousands of kids out of their classes and out of their schools. Well, the Trump Administration’s mass deportation campaign is already succeeding in denying kids, both non-citizens and citizens alike, access to school and education. In a survey of 693 educators across the country, when asked whether federal immigration enforcement efforts were affecting students, 24% reported reduced student attendance at school and increased distraction or disengagement in class, 18% said reduced attendance is leading to declining student performance, of course, and 50% stated that the children in their schools have expressed great anxiety and fear about what’s taking place in their communities.” 
   
• Ranking Member Scanlon said: “Public schools are a crucial part of our social fabric. They’re places where kids can learn, make friends, dream about their futures and develop the skills they need to contribute to those futures and our society. Robbing some children of that foundation would wind up hurting all children and America as a whole. It’s a cruel attempt to senselessly punish undocumented children for their parents’ decisions, choices they had no role in. And it’s all based on a false assertion that giving undocumented children a public education is a burden on taxpayers.” 
   
• Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove asked MALDEF President Thomas Saenz: “For those who claim we can’t afford Plyler, how do you respond to the argument that we actually can’t afford to lose it?” Mr. Saenz responded: “I think it’s absolutely clear because we’ll have immediate repercussions in our public schools, really seeing a further diminution in their ability to deliver an education to anyone. But in the long term, we’ll lose all of that additional revenue and economic contributions. And the things that you can’t even quantify in money, the innovations, the inventions, the new ideas, the inspired leadership provided by formerly undocumented immigrants in our society.” 

The Republicans’ attack on access to education is just another front in the Trump Administration’s ongoing war on children.

• Rep. Pramila Jayapal said: “Republicans would have the American people blame immigrants for all their problems, but it’s not immigrants who are making it harder to feed families. Republicans did that by cutting hundreds of billions of dollars from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It’s not immigrants who are raising the cost of health care for children; Republicans did that by cutting hundreds of billions of dollars from the Children’s Health Insurance Program. And it’s not immigrants who are hurting the quality of our public education. Republicans are now trying to do that by overturning the Supreme Court’s historic decision in Plyler v. Doe.” 
   
• Rep. Steve Cohen said: “[Many immigrant students] don’t get out and are afraid right now to get out of their houses because they’re afraid they’ll get shot by ICE or taken to some detention camp and held for an unlimited amount of time. […] That’s not good for children. That’s not good for America. That’s not good for anybody. That’s anti-American.” 
   
• Rep. Dan Goldman said: “We are here to talk about children—children that this Administration continues to attack. This Administration has increased the fees for any unaccompanied child to actually apply for a visa. Where is that unaccompanied child supposed to get money from? This Administration has canceled contracts for legal representation for children. This Administration has consistently and my Republicans have consistently attacked children who may be transgender and affect no one else. This Administration is waging a war on children. Leave children alone.” 
   
• Rep. Becca Balint said: “How has this Administration treated children and families so far? Well, it has cut early childhood education, it has cut children’s health care, it has cut child nutrition programs, it has cut infant formula inspection, it has cut research for vaccines. They even eliminated funding for children’s television programs on PBS. This is not an Administration that is looking out for children and families.” 

Congress should be focused on policies that make life better for America’s children—including by ending gun violence, which is the leading cause of death for children.

• Rep. Becca Balint said: “Today, our kids carry the real fear of gun violence in their schools. They carry the real anxiety of unaddressed climate change. They have to navigate social media landscapes that exacerbate the crisis of loneliness and disconnection. And for the children of immigrants, they have to deal with all this on top of the fear that they’re experiencing right now, as there are targeted raids happening in communities across this country.” 
   
• Ranking Member Raskin said: “Every year, I urge our colleagues to abandon this determination to make life harder for children in our country, and instead join us in passing policy to deliver for America’s kids. Together, we can make the Child Tax Credit permanent. Instead of making tax cuts permanent for the nation’s billionaires, we could expand access to health care and support for nutrition for kids in need. We could protect the Department of Education to make sure kids in America get equal access to a quality education. We could take action to, once and for all, address the leading cause of death for children under 18 in the United States: the epidemic of gun violence in our country. For more than a decade now, Americans have strongly supported common sense gun safety reform to ensure that guns stay out of hands of the people who do the most harm. Yet no matter how many children lose their lives to gun violence, our colleagues maintain their oath to the gun lobby and the absolute myth that the Second Amendment prevents reasonable gun safety legislation. It does not.”