As social workers, the largest group of the mental health service providers in the United States, we are legally and ethically mandated to support the safety and well-being of children, families and communities. This commitment goes beyond legal requirements but is at the heart of our code of ethics, to ensure we live in communities where everyone can thrive and feel secure.

Under the Trump administration, violent immigration enforcement practices, including aggressive raids, family separation, the detention of children, and the routine use of deadly force, have caused profound and ongoing harm. Medical, mental health, and child welfare experts have long warned that immigration detention causes lasting psychological harm to children. Multiple professional organizations, including pediatric and mental health associations, have condemned the detention of children as developmentally harmful and ethically indefensible.

It is not only detention that causes harm. Entire communities are being traumatized by the sight of masked agents abducting neighbors and forcing them into unmarked vehicles. People fear going to work, taking their children to school, seeking medical care, or even going to the store to buy food. This climate of terror is pushing communities deeper into poverty, worsening health outcomes, and driving rising school absenteeism.

Regarding escalating violence, in Minneapolis alone, federal agents have fatally shot two individuals trying to protect community members, during enforcement operations, including Renée Nicole Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and mother, and Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and U.S. citizen. These deaths raise grave concerns about excessive force, accountability, and the value placed on human life. Renee and Alex could be any of us who are legally and ethically mandated to assist vulnerable people.

These are lived traumas and fatal outcomes that we continue to witness daily, not only in the news, but in the lives of individuals and families, with ripple effects that extend throughout our communities. When one individual is harmed, the health and well-being of entire families and communities are affected.

As mandated reporters, we are trained to intervene when harm places lives at risk. When government systems contribute to injury, trauma, and death, our ethical obligation is to name that harm and act.

We therefore call on the Senate to block ICE and CBP funding and we call on the Trump administration to immediately end the inhumane ICE raids and the deployment of federal and ICE forces in our communities. We urge that resources instead be redirected toward care, stability, and community-based supports, not violence and government-enforced trauma.

Protecting people is our mandate. We will not be silent when lives are at stake.