State Rep. Lilian Jimenez, Ill. congressional candidate Anthony Driver Jr. rally with parents, child care workers at Trump Tower: ‘This child care funding freeze is a slap in the face’

Ralliers call on Illinois leaders to protect families by expanding funding for state program, make billionaires pay what they owe in taxes

CHICAGO – Chanting and holding signs reading “Hands off our child care” and “Child care is essential,” the Illinois Child Care for All Coalition, including child care workers with SEIU Healthcare Illinois (SEIU HCII), rallied outside Trump Tower Thursday with State Representative Lilian Jiménez (IL-4) and candidate for Congress Anthony Driver Jr. (IL-7) to condemn the Trump administration’s reckless $1 billion freeze of federal child care funding for Illinois and demand state leaders take action to protect Illinois families from devastating cuts to care. 

“Child care right now is in crisis. The families that I serve are low income and need child care support. Meanwhile, my coworkers and I live paycheck to paycheck,” said Toni Frazier, an SEIU Healthcare Illinois leader and Family Support Specialist at a Chicago child care center. “This child care funding freeze is a slap in the face and it hurts. It’s a slap in the face to all of our families and the hard working professionals. If their [child care center] closes because of this freeze, parents will face difficulties finding reliable care and getting to work. They won’t even be able to go to work because they won’t have anyone to take care of their children. Our state would grind to a halt.”

President Trump’s funding freeze threatens the Illinois Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), a critical lifeline for more than 150,000 children and nearly 20 percent of working families across the state. While Illinois and other states have sued the administration and a federal judge has temporarily blocked the funding freeze from going into effect, uncertainty remains for both parents and child care providers. 

To prevent Illinois families from feeling the shocks of ongoing federal disruptions, advocates are calling on state leaders to make corporations and billionaires pay what they owe in taxes to fund the child care programs communities need to thrive.

“Trump’s game is to spread fear and lies about immigrants and people who look just like me, then they cut our services to pay for tax breaks for the rich. But guess what? Trump’s child care freeze hurts everyone,” said candidate Anthony Driver Jr. “We’re all feeling the pain, but we’re not going to be just satisfied with restoring this $1 billion cut.  We need childcare for all—healthy, affordable, robust childcare for every single person in this state and in this country.”

“As a mom, I sent my son—he’s seven years old now—I sent him to a child care center, and that child care center was a second home to him. It allowed him to thrive, to learn, and in our case, to maintain his biliteracy, his bilingual culture, because we had a child care center that hired immigrants, that hired people from the community. And guess what? That made our community better,” said Representative Lilian Jimenez. “We need to tax the billionaires. We need to protect the immigrant communities, and we need to stand united in the state of Illinois and in Chicago.” 

Many child care providers already operate on shoestring budgets and rely on CCAP funding simply to keep the lights on. It is estimated that Illinois is facing a shortage of at least 55,000 child care workers, and any disruption to funding will ripple across communities. Speakers warned that the freeze could push providers toward closure, drive up costs for families, and force even more workers out of an already underpaid and overstretched profession—deepening a child care crisis that is already hurting families statewide.

“We should be investing more in the child care program and making it more affordable—not less,” said Erica Bland, Executive Vice President of SEIU HCII. “We are going to do everything that we can to continue this fight beyond the temporary freeze to make sure that the billion dollars is restored. But we are also fighting for more revenue in this state, because we know that the current program does not provide enough child care for the number of families in Illinois that need assistance.”

During the rally, workers, advocates and parents spoke to how essential child care is for working families, and called out the Trump administration for making Illinois families collateral damage in political fights.

“I just want to say to my fellow child care workers—Black, brown, Asian, latina—that we are all together,” said Jamila Wilson, an SEIU Healthcare Illinois leader who runs Bright Start Home Child Care. “We have to stick together and fight against this treachery that is happening to us.”