The Department of Homeland Security has planned a surge in immigrant detentions, heightening uncertainty for Delaware parents who fear deportation could leave their children without a caregiver. One mother is weighing what that could mean for her young son.
Julienne, a Haitian mother in Seaford, fears separation from her 6-year-old son, Junior. Her humanitarian parole program, which allowed her to live legally in the United States, ended last year. She has lived in Delaware since 2023.
She is raising four children, but Junior is the only one currently in the United States. Her worries center on who would care for him if she were deported.
“My main concern is the kids and what's going to happen to them,” Julienne said in Haitian Creole. “I'm the mom, I have to take care of them.”
A detention can leave a child’s caregiver uncertain
Emily Houde, supervising attorney for the immigration unit at Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (CLASI), said children have two main possible paths when a parent is deported: care by a relative or placement in foster care. Which route applies depends on circumstances at the time of detention.
When children are with a parent as Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) detains them, agents are supposed to coordinate with state officials to arrange care. That could mean placing a child with a nearby relative. If no suitable caregiver is available, the state may step in.
The process can miss children who are not present. Houde said ICE agents do not necessarily have a duty to ask a detained parent whether they have children when no child is at the scene. If nobody alerts state officials, the Department of Services for Children, Youth & Their Families (DSCYF), Delaware’s foster-care agency, may not know a child has been left behind.
The distinction can shape whether a child is connected with a caregiver or the state. There is no guarantee that family members will be available to take over.
Junior has few available caregivers in Delaware
Junior holds dual citizenship in the United States and Haiti. Julienne said she does not want him to move to Haiti, which she described as unsafe and lacking the prosperity she wants for a young child. Her other three children live on the island, and she worries about them as well.
The possible caregiving options in Delaware are limited, she said. Junior’s father travels frequently for work, while relatives in Seaford already have other caregiving responsibilities. Julienne fears her son could enter foster care if she is deported.
The uncertainty weighs on parents beyond Julienne. Immigration lawyers and people working in Delaware’s foster-care system said undocumented immigrants are increasingly anxious about what would happen to U.S.-born children if their parents were deported. The answer depends on individual circumstances, Houde said.
Delaware advocates say family separations are hard to count
Maria Theresa Beauchamp Balan, co-founder of Network Delaware, said she is concerned that the state does not adequately track children affected by immigration-related family separation or foster-care placement. That makes it difficult to know the full number of children affected in Delaware.
Federal data showed a 49% increase in immigration-enforcement-related foster-care entries in 2025. Balan said the figure is likely an undercount.
Children who enter state care may still face a lengthy separation from a parent. Reunification can depend on how long they have been apart, whether a parent can return to the United States, or whether a child eventually joins a parent abroad.
“It can be really complicated depending on the individual circumstances of these cases,” Houde said. “How long they've [been] separated, if they ever can get back [to the U.S.], or eventually, if the parent sends for them from abroad to join them.”
