AUSTIN, Texas — Montserrat Garibay of the Texas Observer offers a stark and urgent account of what it means to grow up undocumented in the United States, describing a childhood shaped by hypervigilance and fear that can “hijack a developing brain.” Her reporting centers the daily reality faced by undocumented children and their parents, where the ordinary act of seeking help can carry devastating consequences.
In January, Texas police alerted Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a 911 call reported a disturbance in the Southwest district of Austin and an officer identified an administrative warrant in a federal database. The person who made the call was 26-year-old Honduran national Karen Gutiérrez Castellanos, and she and her 5-year-old son were detained and removed from the United States.
Immigration enforcement officers have responded to numerous calls from undocumented families pleading for help or reporting disturbances, only to be “punished for seeking help and turned local police into extensions of federal immigration enforcement.”
In 2025, FWD (Forward Us, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit), a bipartisan political advocacy organization focused on advancing immigration policies, reported that in July nearly 15% — about 890,000 — of K-12 students in Texas had at least one undocumented parent, with just over 111,000 undocumented children.
When the major academic publisher Elsevier’s Journal of Social Science and Medicine conducted a study of children held at United States detention centers in 2019, up to 97.4% of Central American and Mexican children experienced at least one pre-migration traumatic event, and nearly half — 44% — demonstrated at least one psychological or behavioral concern.
Children soon become conditioned to the danger of calling 911, learning that the promise of citizenship does not guarantee safety when a family is undocumented; police are seen as forces that may act against them rather than protect them.
Early childhood development is critical, as young children are highly susceptible to their environments and require “safety, routine and trust to develop socially, emotionally and cognitively.” When fear surrounds a child’s development, many enter survival mode, become anxious and unconsciously develop coping mechanisms.
A child cannot sit in class when emotional regulation is disrupted; fear is a primary factor in impairing memory and attention.
“In school, my mind was often divided — half focused on the lesson, half bracing for loss,” Garibay said. “I struggled to concentrate, not because I lacked intelligence or motivation, but because fear hijacks a developing brain.”
When a child develops hypervigilance, they begin noticing things no child should have to, losing curiosity, confidence and joy while carrying fear into classrooms instead of learning and growing alongside their peers.
The detention of children, and the ripple effects on classmates who witness detentions, hear about neighbors being deported or watch a parent disappear after an interaction with police, can silence entire communities. As seen in Minneapolis, parents avoid schools and stop reporting crimes.
Garibay calls on Austin to take a stand against ICE and adopt policies that protect families. “When local governments entangle themselves with immigration enforcement, trust collapses. Public safety suffers. And children pay the highest price,” she said.
Children should not be used as instruments to advance political messages, and society should never be forced to decide whether children deserve protection or punishment. Fear should never guide public policy.
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