The Families Hiding from ICE

Summary

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Up First (NPR) – The Families Hiding from ICE

Date: December 7, 2025
Host: Ayesha Rascoe
Reporter: Jasmine Garsd
Guest Host: B.A. Parker (Code Switch)
Main Theme:
An on-the-ground look at the everyday decisions, fears, and sacrifices of undocumented immigrant families living under the threat of deportation—and the extraordinary steps they're taking to keep their children safe in America.

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Sunday Story dives deep into how undocumented families are enduring life under intense immigration enforcement during the Trump administration. NPR immigration reporter Jasmine Garsd follows families in Maryland and Washington, D.C., examining the psychological toll of living in fear, the pressures leading some to consider "self-deportation," and the rise of emergency guardianship—citizens stepping in to safeguard undocumented parents’ American-born children should the former be detained and deported.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Life on Lockdown: The “Summer of Nothing”

• Setting: Rural Maryland; family of six living in heightened fear
• Lockdown Reality:
  • Entire summer spent indoors, children as young as one, as old as twelve, unable to attend activities or outings (02:36–10:51).
  • Quote (Mother "M"):
    "We spent it locked down... We didn't go out. The weather was bad." (03:00)
  • Impact on Kids:
    • Eldest daughter, Kay (12), pulled from STEM summer camp.
    • Seven-year-old daughter, “L”, experiencing panic attacks, skipped school due to anxiety about parents’ potential deportation.
    • Quote (L):
      "My mom tell me it's gonna be okay. I worry till something will happen to her, like something won't get her." (05:04, 01:00)

ICE Encounters and the Shadow of Self-Deportation

• Family Tensions:
  • M’s husband wants to self-deport; M refuses, determined not to uproot their U.S.-born children.
  • Husband at heightened risk due to his public job as a landscaper—hides in his car during ICE sightings.
  • Family retreats further after ICE presence—children aware and responsive to every threat and change.
    • Quote (M’s seven-year-old):
      “…they were working, ICE came there... our dad sent us a message... how did that make you feel? Sad." (08:56)

The Constant Fear: Schools, Status, and Uncertainty

• Fear of Public Exposure:
  • Parents anxious about sending children to school, unsure if ICE could act there (11:39).
  • Legal Clarification (Elora Mukherjee, Columbia Law):
    • "Agents need a warrant to go into a school. Parents and children cannot be asked about their immigration status by the school." (12:19)
    • Real-life counterexample: armed ICE officers pursued someone into a Chicago preschool—showing the reality can feel “blurry” and frightening for many.

Emergency Guardianship: A Desperate Plan

• M’s Precaution:
  • After a summer of anxiety, M arranges emergency guardianship for her children with a friend:
    • Quote (Jasmine Garsd):
      "She did something a lot of parents never consider doing—she reached out to a friend who is an American citizen and started the paperwork to give emergency guardianship in case she or her husband get picked up by ICE." (14:33)

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Deeper Dive: Arrangements to Keep Families Together

Discussion: Jasmine Garsd and BA Parker
(Timestamps: ~16:33–23:20)

What is Emergency Guardianship?

• Definition:
  Legal paperwork naming a trusted local, usually a U.S. citizen, as guardian to a child in the event their parents are detained/deported by ICE.
• Why families do it:
  A way to reclaim some control and safety; the process is emotionally wrenching.
  • Quote (Parent, via Jasmine):
    "I'm not happy, but I'm relieved… that's one less thing to worry about if there is something to worry about." (17:14)

Perspective of Emergency Guardians

• Case Study:
  American mom in DC, approached by the Honduran parents of her son’s best friend (17-year-old US citizen):
  • The Request:
    "We could get detained any minute now, and if we do, I want to ask you if you would be the temporary guardian of our son. Don’t feel pressured... We are putting our son's life in your hands. He is seventeen, he needs to finish high school... he will need guidance." (20:49)
  • Guardian’s response:
    "Yes, of course, right? Like not even…not a question, not a moment’s hesitation. We love them." (21:07)
    • Describes seeing happy families and feeling "deeply sad and sorry that this is a conversation that we even need to have." (21:29)
    • Still hopes this shared challenge might "bring people closer together if we let it."
  • The family hides this arrangement even from extended relatives to protect the undocumented parents (23:48).

The Legal Landscape—Advice for Families

• Growth in Guardianship Arrangements:
  Jasmine hears more families arranging guardianship, though numbers are unclear because few go public.
• Attorneys’ Advice (Ginger Miranda, Central Florida Hispanic Bar Association):
  • Make formal, legal plans, not just verbal agreements.
  • "Have the paperwork drawn out… don’t go and tell your cousin ‘hey take the kids’... If you do not prepare, the consequences can be really serious." (22:59)
  • Without legal preparation, children risk ending up in foster care—a nightmare scenario for many parents.

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Human Toll and Resilience

• Emotional Fallout:

  • The Honduran mother—too pained to speak, suffering headaches and chest pains from the stress.
  • The father:
    "I always knew this time would come…this country is for no one, it's for Americans, the white ones. …Do you really think this is what we wanted…to abandon our child in another country? Do you think this was the plan? Who would want this…? Nobody." (25:04–25:41)

• Small Sources of Comfort:

  • “We try to keep it a little lighter around the dinner table…watch television like the Great British Baking Show.” (24:05)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• "My Whatsapp is filled with ghosts." — Jasmine Garsd on the eerie frequency of contacts disappearing amid ICE crackdowns. (06:09)
• "We spent it locked down… we didn't go out." — Maryland mom “M” on an entire summer indoors. (03:00)
• "We’re not even going to work right now... there are literally checkpoints on both sides of his street." — Honduran father in D.C. describing the intensity of neighborhood targeting. (19:11–19:34)
• "Do you really think this is what we wanted… who would want this?" — Honduran father, reflecting the agony of potentially leaving a child behind. (25:27–25:41)
• "It's not all jokes…" — Jasmine, on the coping mechanisms families deploy amid anxiety, blending humor with heartbreak. (10:26)

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Important Segments and Timestamps

• The “Summer of Nothing” begins: 02:36
• How ICE presence disrupts families: 07:41–09:24
• School anxieties & legal advice: 11:20–12:19
• Emergency guardianship decision: 14:33–15:08, 16:34–23:20
• DC family’s guardianship experience: 18:29–24:05
• The emotional conclusion with the Honduran parents: 24:22–25:41

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Takeaways

• Living on alert: For many undocumented parents, each day brings agonizing choices—risk being visible or hunker down, disrupt kids' lives or keep them safe.
• Community support is critical, but legal safeguards are vital to prevent children’s displacement into foster care.
• Emergency guardianship is on the rise—but making those arrangements is emotionally wrenching for all involved.
• The experience is one of constant psychological strain mitigated only by moments of humor, neighborly acts, and hope for togetherness amid adversity.

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This episode is a powerful, intimate portrait of families making unimaginable choices—grappling with what it means to belong, to care for those you love, and to find resilience in the shadow of deportation.

Transcript

[Aisha Rascoe]

Aisha i'm aisha rascoe and this is the sunday story where we go beyond the headlines of the day to bring you one big story.

The trump administration's immigration policies have upended daily life for undocumented immigrants across the country some have self deported others have gone into hiding afraid to leave their homes many are still torn about what makes sense for their families in the face of an uncertain future over the past year npr's immigration correspondent jasmine garst has been following the ups and downs of some of the people navigating this moment she sat down with host ba parker on the code switch podcast to talk about her reporting and we wanted to share some of it with you we start with jasmine's story of a maryland mom who's taking unusual steps to keep her kids.

[Jasmine Garst]

Safe.

My mom tell me it's gonna be okay i worry till something will happen to her like something won't get her.

[Aisha Rascoe]

We'Ll be right back.

[BetterHelp/Warby Parker/Amnesty International Ad Speaker]

This message comes from betterhelp as a dad betterhelp president fernando madera relates to needing flexibility when it comes to scheduling therapy i.

[Jasmine Garst]

Have kids under eighteen so like time.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Is very limited that's why at betterhelp.

[Jasmine Garst]

Our therapists try to have sessions sometimes at night depending on the therapist or during the weekend so i think that's.

[Aisha Rascoe]

What we need to tell the parents.

[Jasmine Garst]

You'Re not alone we can help you.

[BetterHelp/Warby Parker/Amnesty International Ad Speaker]

Out if a flexible schedule would help you visit betterhelp dot com npr for ten percent off your first month of.

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[Aisha Rascoe]

We'Re back with the sunday story and an episode about the difficult choices facing undocumented migrants and their families here's npr's immigration reporter jasmine garst the kids say this summer.

[Jasmine Garst]

Was the summer of nothing that it was boring as hell nothing happened nothing at all we didn't go anywhere one mother in maryland told me she quietly lost her mind this summer.

We spent it locked down she says we didn't go out the weather was bad the day i drove down there to the southern part of the state where rivers and creeks crisscrossed the land it was late august hurricane season and tropical storm erin had led to coastal flooding warnings up and down the mid atlantic i kept kind of eyeing the water nervously every time i crossed a bridge and i was going to check in with a family i wrote about earlier this year for a story about self deportation now self deportation is one of the centerpieces of the trump administration's immigration policy the message from the government has been take your kids with you they can always come back as adults but back when we first met last winter this mother in maryland told me very firmly she would under no circumstances self deport with her children.

My children were born here she says they are american citizens this mother asked that i refer to her as em em and her husband live in a pretty rural area of maryland and they are both from guatemala they're also both undocumented em's husband desperately wants to self deport he is really out there in the world every day working as a landscaper and he's quite worried about being detained and taken to a detention center and he says she just doesn't understand that it's not the same for her she works from home making pinatas and party favors for quinceaneras weddings birthdays the couple fights about this constantly the kids see it and it gives them bad anxiety back in the winter when we first met her youngest daughter her seven year old first initial ellen had a cold she kept having to be sent home from school but the real reason was because she was having panic attacks i feel frustrated sometimes i was just feeling sad.

My mom tell me it's gonna be okay i worry till something will happen to her like something won't get her.

After we met that one time em and i stayed in touch she would send me whatsapp messages almost every day you know pictures of her pinatas and stuff your tia sends you on whatsapp you know a daily blessing softly lit images of flowers or kittens or kittens inside flowers with some motivational quote and i'd ask about the kids how is everyone doing is has the family made any decisions and then around the beginning of summer radio silence.

After a few weeks of not hearing anything from m i reached out i could tell my messages hadn't even gone through i started to wonder if maybe m or her husband got arrested deported or maybe they finally agreed to leave to self deport.

It was strange that i hadn't heard from her but this has sort of become a constant in my life as an immigration reporter for the last few months on a regular basis i will have an extraordinarily intimate conversation with a complete stranger or someone will find my phone number and call me from inside a detention center and they will tell me their worst fear their desperation they will ask me what i know as if i know and then that person will just vanish it's like my whatsapp is filled with ghosts.

So yeah over the summer when i stopped hearing from them i decided to go check in on this family as i drove to southern maryland in the storm i was really unsure of what i was going to find but as i approached the driveway someone drew the curtain and these four faces like pressed up against the window and it was em and the kids and they they immediately bolted out smiling and running to say hello even though she was wearing not platform shoes she was wearing wedges which was kind of hilarious because people running and jogging in heels is very funny to me just happy to see you she looked the same even though she's lost a lot of weight she says her stomach hurts a lot.

She still got these very ready cheeks and she laughs at everything she has an infectious raspy laughter she's always dressed really cute you know she reminds me of a little like fran drescher.

Sometimes it throws me off like she'll be talking about how she had to hide in her house all summer and it really affected her psychologically and then.

Once we were inside the house em apologized for going silent she explained that her phone broke earlier this summer and she just couldn't afford to buy a new one the party planning business it's it's not going very well she says people latino immigrants in particular aren't doing a lot of celebrating lately m's husband still wants to go back to guatemala earlier this summer he was at work at a landscaping job when ice agents showed up he went to his car to lay low and he sent em a message on facebook they're here i'm seven year old elle explains one.

Day when they were working ice came there how did you know about that because our dad sent us a message and how did that make you feel sad em so she didn't eat at all that day.

My bones hurt from the anxiety we locked ourselves in i was scared and that event sent the family into a sort of lockdown for the entire summer hence the summer of nothing the family was stuck indoors in their small trailer home for three whole summer months with four children ages one to twelve as em and i talk her youngest boy has climbed on top of the laundry machine and is throwing out about one hundred give or take plastic easter eggs onto the floor.

The baby she's rocking is unbeknownst to her pointing a very large bottle of glue at me like directly at my face and then her seven year old walks in holding an upside down cat oh my god the cat.

She held a strand of her hair and in true m style made a joke i didn't have these white hairs last time we met did i it's not all jokes the eldest kid k says this summer was actually incredibly boring nothing happened nothing at all boring because we we didn't go anywhere.

Kay is twelve and you can really like hear her adolescence simmering this summer she was selected to go to a stem summer camp for kids who are interested in science her parents pulled her out they told her the family had to hunker down all summer activities were canceled.

My husband had to explain to them and says you are us citizens but we are not if we take you to the aquarium to the pool we could get detained we could get deported without looking at her mom kay says she's excited about school starting again.

But i was filled with questions like what if immigration agents come for me while my kids are in school or as i'm picking them up and can immigration agents go into the school can they ask my kids about our legal status i heard concerns like this from a lot of parents.

Oh can they i actually reached out to elora mukherjee to ask about this she's a professor of law at columbia law school and also the director of the immigration rights clinic at the school and what.

[Ba Parker]

Did mukherjee say there are no confirmed.

[Jasmine Garst]

Reports of ice raids or ice enforcement inside of schools mccurgy says she understands the fear though because almost as soon as president trump took office in january these previously dozens designated locations like schools and churches and hospitals were deemed no longer off limits for immigration enforcement but she clarifies that agents and this is really important agents need a warrant to go into a school parents and children cannot be asked about their immigration status by the school however just a few weeks ago in chicago a teacher you might have seen this parker was chased by armed immigration officers into the preschool she works at dhs said they weren't targeting the school itself but you can see how the lines for many parents and students feel blurry so back to em her kids started school in the fall like kids all over the country and then a few days later i got this audio message from her she had a phone again.

She'S standing about a block away from the school bus stop the sheriff's department is there she has to pick the kids up but she's scared.

About an hour later got another out of breath message they made it home.

I froze she says she grabbed the kids and they ran back home it's okay now she repeats it's it's okay nothing happened and then she laughs and says i got as cold as a cucumber though.

That first week of school em says she did what a lot of parents across america did.

She caught up on her sleep.

And then she did something a lot of parents never consider doing she reached out to a friend who is an american citizen and started the paperwork to give emergency guardianship in case she or her husband get picked up by ice.

[Aisha Rascoe]

When we come back host ba parker talks to jasmine about the process of emergency guardianship and what it means for families either giving up or taking over the responsibilities of parenting.

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[Aisha Rascoe]

We'Re back with a sunday story and a conversation between code switch host ba parker and npr's jasmine garst about emergency guardianship.

Okay jasmine can.

[Ba Parker]

You talk to us about what emergency guardianship looks like i mean to me it seems like an impossible place to be in like you're caught between wanting to be with your kids and wanting what's best for your kids but also knowing that you might have to leave them behind if you're targeted by immigration.

[Jasmine Garst]

Enforcement you know yeah it's a rock and a hard place for many many families you know the parents i spoke to who did this process of giving someone else emergency guardianship power told me it did make them feel some sort of security like a sense of control in a world that they feel has gone out of control and they also told me it felt like okay some of my neighbors really are watching out for me the way one parent said it to me was i'm not happy but i'm relieved does that make sense.

[Ba Parker]

Yeah it's not great but it you know that's one less thing to worry about if there is something to worry.

[Jasmine Garst]

About yeah and a lot of parents describe that sense of like my community does care about me or my friend my neighbor cares about me so at the end of the summer i was working on a totally separate story in washington dc and i met a woman who confided in me that she she had gotten that call that she had signed on to be an emergency guardian i went to her home this very lovely house in an upper middle class dc neighborhood she says the phone rang one day and it was her son's best friend's father she tells me this story as she offers me some freshly baked cookies some milk would you like.

[American Mom (Emergency Guardian)]

Oat milk or milk milk milk milk.

[Ba Parker]

Okay.

This is like an american american.

[Jasmine Garst]

Woman okay yes it was very like a different world she was extremely sweet and hospitable she asked that we not use her name i mean she is american she's an american citizen but she wants to protect the man who called her that day her son's best friend's father he's honduran so is his wife they're undocumented they've been in the us for some twenty five years and they spent the last month or so hiding in their homes.

We'Re not even going to work right now he says there's been a heavy ice presence in dc for the last month or so you might have seen some of the videos arrests throughout the city delivery workers being arrested and the honduran father says there are literally checkpoints on both sides of his street.

Our neighborhood is surrounded he says and you know you might get past a checkpoint once but twice.

So the only person who goes in and out of that house is their seventeen year old son who's their only child he was born in the us he's a citizen he goes to high school every morning his parents stay behind just hunkering down and they recently sat down with him and asked if we get deported what do you want to do.

Well and he responded i don't know honduras i've never been and then he mentions his best friend the one who the family has known since the boys were in pre k together we need to ask them for help he said so they called the american mom the one i'm sitting with having cookies and milk and when the families met the hunter and dad laid it out super clearly we could get detained any minute now and if we do i want to ask you if you would be the temporary guardian of our son.

Don'T feel pressured he told them we understand this is an enormous request we are putting our son's life in your hands he is seventeen he needs to finish high school we want him to go to college he will need guidance you.

[American Mom (Emergency Guardian)]

Know my husband and i just looked at each other and we were like yes of course right like not even not a question not a moment's hesitation it's not something we entered into lightly we love them i find myself seeing people on the street laughing and having fun and asking myself like how is that even possible.

Just as an american i am deeply sad and sorry that this is a conversation that we even need to have.

And yet i really do hold out hope for the possibility that in the long run it does serve to bring people closer together if we let it.

[Ba Parker]

But is this happening more and more how common is this.

[Jasmine Garst]

Kind of arrangement i am hearing a lot about this i mean it's not clear how many families have arranged this because it's not people aren't going public with it yeah fair but i've been hearing a lot about it and i've been hearing a lot about it from families and i've been hearing a lot about it from lawyers lawyers i spoke to say they've seen an increase in recent months i spoke to ginger miranda she's president of the central florida hispanic bar association what we're advising is you know to be prepared and lately what they've been doing is they've been holding a lot of emergency guardianship and power of attorney classes across the state and what they recommend is that people do not make verbal or informal kind of handshake agreements make concrete plans through a lawyer they say like having it all legally sorted out yeah she described it almost like a will like this is something you don't wanna think could happen but it could so have the paperwork drawn out don't go and tell your cousin hey take the kids it's a smart precaution yeah there's a reality which attorney ginger miranda says which is if you do not prepare the consequences can be really serious remember if a parent is detained those children are left vulnerable.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Sometimes they're left at school no one's.

[Jasmine Garst]

There to pick them up and without the proper legal documents in place you know that's the children could end up in foster care which is exactly the scenario this honduran family is afraid of their son ending up in foster care so they all went and signed the paperwork to give the us citizen family emergency guardianship.

The american mom says she has told nobody she does not want to put the honduran parents at risk.

[American Mom (Emergency Guardian)]

My mom does not know my husband's mother does not know instead they tried.

[Jasmine Garst]

To keep the mood in the house.

[American Mom (Emergency Guardian)]

Light we try to keep it a little lighter around the dinner table and watch amusing and really sweet television like the great british baking show.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Did you.

[Ba Parker]

Get to speak to the honduran mother.

[Jasmine Garst]

I wanted to i really wanted to and she just couldn't her husband apologized for her he explained very graciously that she didn't want to be rude it just this broke her.

She has chest pains headaches she isn't doing well.

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Me.

[Jasmine Garst]

The father says i always knew this time would come and i asked what he meant.

And he said this country is for no one it's for americans the white ones he says he's grateful beyond words to the american family for their help if it comes to it his son will be safe and yet.

Do you really think this is what we wanted he says to abandon our child in another country do you think this was the plan who would want this he says.

Nobody.

[Aisha Rascoe]

That was npr correspondent jasmine garst and code switch co host ba parker you can hear more of jasmine's reporting on immigrant families on npr's code switch podcast this episode of code switch was produced by javier lopez it was edited by leah donnella the engineer was kwesi lee and a special thanks to courtney stein jenny schmidt thomas coltrane and andrew mambo worked on this episode of the sunday story our team also includes justine yan and liana simstrom irene noguchi is our executive producer i'm aisha roscoe and up first we'll be back tomorrow with all the news you need to start your week until then have a great rest of your weekend.

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