AUSTIN, TX — As immigration enforcement practices continue to generate widespread anxiety and disruption across Texas, local advocacy groups are stepping up efforts to support affected communities. On Thursday, the Children’s Defense Fund-Texas (CDF-TX) alongside the Immigrant Services Network of Austin (ISNA)—a coalition of diverse community stakeholders and immigrant service providers—will host a prominent community meeting in Austin. The event is designed to shed light on how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detentions, deportations, and related enforcement activities are directly impacting children, parents, and entire households throughout the region.
The gathering, titled the “Free Families” event, is scheduled to run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the SAFE Alliance, located at 4800 Manor Road, Building B, in Austin. Organizers have structured the evening to offer a blend of art, advocacy, and vital community connection. By bringing together residents, organizers, and directly impacted individuals, the event aims to foster a deeper understanding of how state-sponsored violence, shifting federal priorities, and broader anti-immigrant policies have fundamentally altered daily life for families in Central Texas.
In addition to informative presentations from policy experts and community leaders, attendees will have the opportunity to participate directly in an art-as-advocacy campaign. The program is also designed to bridge the gap between concerned residents and local grassroots organizations, giving participants clear avenues to engage through volunteering, mutual aid initiatives, and ongoing advocacy work.
Trudy Taylor Smith, Esq., Senior Administrator of Policy and Advocacy at CDF-TX, emphasized that the Free Families gathering serves as a critical entry point for Austin residents looking to understand the real-world threats facing immigrant families. She noted that the event provides a platform not only to examine these challenges but also to explore meaningful, concrete ways local community members can stand up and support their immigrant neighbors.
“Every child in America deserves to grow up with dignity, hope, and joy,” Taylor Smith said. She pointed out that despite this fundamental principle, hundreds of thousands of young people across Texas are currently living in an atmosphere of intense fear. According to Taylor Smith, aggressive immigration enforcement measures continually threaten to separate children from their parents, subject them to detention facilities characterized by systemic abuse and neglect, and force them out of the country to places where their lives and safety may be severely compromised.
“Through this event, our goal is to provide Austin residents with a clear understanding of how these cruel policies impact local communities, and to equip them with the relationships, information, and tools they need to support their immigrant neighbors,” Taylor Smith added.
The urgency of the discussion is underscored by staggering national and regional statistics compiled since the beginning of President Trump’s second term. According to recent reports from investigative and advocacy groups, more than 6,200 children have been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during this period. Furthermore, the parents of more than 146,000 U.S. citizen children have been detained nationwide as part of an aggressive mass deportation push.
The human toll of these enforcement actions is acutely visible in Texas, where hundreds of families have been subjected to confinement at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. Reports from legal observers, journalists, and humanitarian organizations have documented troubling conditions within the facility, where young people and their parents have reportedly been denied adequate food supplies, clean drinking water, and essential medical care. These conditions have intensified concerns among child welfare advocates who argue that the current enforcement regime inflicts severe, long-lasting trauma on vulnerable minors, many of whom are American citizens by birth.
The event organizers, CDF-TX and ISNA, hope that the Austin community meeting will serve as a catalyst for local solidarity and a counterweight to the widespread fear generated by federal immigration policies. By creating a shared space for dialogue and collaborative action, the participating organizations aim to strengthen the network of protection and mutual aid surrounding immigrant families in Central Texas.
The Children’s Defense Fund, established nationally in 1973, maintains a long-standing vision of a nation where marginalized children are empowered to flourish, where political and civic leaders prioritize the well-being of the younger generation, and where communities possess the collective power to ensure all youth thrive. As the only national, multi-issue advocacy organization working explicitly at the intersection of child well-being and racial justice, CDF focuses its efforts on supporting America’s most diverse generation—comprising the 74 million children and youth under the age of 18 and 30 million young adults under the age of 25.
Through grassroots movements rooted in marginalized communities, CDF builds power to advance child-centered public policies informed by racial equity and the actual lived experiences of children and youth. The organization is also widely recognized for its signature CDF Freedom Schools program, which operates in nearly 100 cities spanning 30 states and territories, providing summer enrichment and empowerment to young people across the country.
