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www.newsindiatimes.com – that’s all you need to know Lifestyle News India Times (November 15, 2025 - November 21, 2025) November 21, 2025 26 Immigration As Deportation Fears Rise, Immigrant Parents Ask: Who Cares For My Kids? As of late September, ICE is holding nearly 60,000 people in custody. It’s unclear how many of those are parents. TheWhite House has said it is targeting criminals, but some of those who have been detained are asylum seek- ers, longtime residents, people with pending immigration cases or even U.S. citizens. A Syracuse University research group has found that more than 70 percent of those de- tained by ICE do not have criminal records. At a time of heightened anxiety, some immigrants said guardianship planning has become one of the few things they can control. “It helps me breathe,” said one mother, an asylum seeker fromVenezuela, who completed the Illinois form with Arundale. “And it took 10 minutes.” HUNDREDS EVERY WEEK Rosa arrived in Chicago four years ago. She cleans an office with a work permit, but a highly publicized federal immigration raid in her neighborhood sent her into a panic. After Rosa learned about temporary guardianship, her church connected her with Rebekah Rashidfarokhi, an attorney and director of guardianship and immigra- tion programs for children at Chicago Volunteer Legal Services, which offers pro bono representation. The two met virtually this month to discuss the pro- cess. Unlike adoption or more complicated guardianship procedures that require court approval, short-term guardianship in Illinois needs just the signatures of two consenting parties and two witnesses. Parents can revoke the arrangement at any time. It can last up to a year. The form is helpful for enrolling a child in school or going to the doctor, Rashidfarokhi said, because it is recognized by state law. It has no federal authority, so it cannot be used to get a passport. (Several parents said that if they are deported they hoped it could also help make international travel and reuniting with their chil- dren easier.) The guardianship does not kick in immediately but takes effect with a specified event. Rashidfarokhi instruct- ed Rosa to be specific about the conditions: “In case I am detained by immigration.” Rosa said she left Ecuador after her husband was abusing her and threatening her children. She has lived in fear in recent weeks, she said, but also knowing she must make logistical plans. She has been preparing documents, including proof of custody of her son after her divorce. She spoke to a woman, a dual American and Ecuadorian citizen, she met taking English classes at a community college to be her designated guardian. The woman agreed. She has avoided talking too much about any of it with her 13-year-old son. “He is confused about what is happening,” Rosa said. “But I am his mother, and I have to do it.” Rashidfarokhi has been a family law attorney for two decades. Most years, she handles two or three short-term guardianship cases. Now, hundreds of people are request- ing information every week, with families and commu- nity groups flooding her with requests for clinics and presentations. At one clinic earlier this year, 100 families showed up. (Rashidfarokhi said it’s difficult to quantify how many people fill out the form because many of the consultations she does now are virtual since so many people are afraid to leave their homes.) Mayra Lira, an attorney with Public Counsel in Los Angeles, said she has seen similar demand for guardian- ship clinics in her city, where the Trump administration has also carried out immigration raids. Lira described seeing parents make short-term guard- ianship plans as “dystopian,” adding that allegations of unlawful arrests and racial profiling have also brought green-card holders and U.S. citizens to the clinics. “Everyone is afraid of being targeted,” she said. ‘WE WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHAT TO DO’ The legal framework for Illinois’ short-term guardian- ship didn’t exist until the late 1980s. It was conceived of primarily to assist HIV-positive parents, many of them low-income, who were worried the state would assume custody of their kids if they died. It took several years of lobbying before Illinois amended its probate law. “It was revolutionary at the time,” said Linda Coon, a lawyer who spearheaded the effort. “I knew it would help our clients but could never imagine it would be used by thousands of people today.” Its uses have expanded over the years. During the early days of the pandemic, an executive order in NewYork state allowed medical workers to designate a tempo- rary guardian. Several states - including Maryland and NewYork, as well as the District of Columbia - amended statutes during the first Trump administration to recog- nize immigration detention or deportation as an event that could give designated caregivers temporary parental rights. California passed a law last month that created a new short-term guardianship process for parents who could be detained or deported. Today, guardianship conversations are happening in all types of settings, some not even planned by parents. A teacher in Maine said she agreed to be a temporary guardian for one of her students after the parents broke down crying in a meeting over what might happen to their child if they were deported. “I will do that every single time,” the teacher said. “I shouldn’t have to. I should just be able to teach my kids.” Mimi Lettunich, an Oregon resident, took care of a friend’s four children after the family was detained by fed- eral agents. (She has a pending U.S. visa and her children are U.S. citizens.)When Lettunich picked up the children, she was handed a coloring book with a note from their mother that said: “I will miss my babies. … I talked to them that they need to obey you.” The note also included a reminder for one of her kids’ upcoming orthodontist appointments. Temporary guardianship allowed Lettunich to take the kids to doctor’s appointments and enroll them in a new school. Lettunich’s friend was eventually released, and the two are now working on a handbook to help families facing the same circumstances. One of its strongest recommen- dations: arrange for short-term guardianship. “We want people to know what to do,” Lettunich said. “Because you never think it’ll happen - until it does.” -TheWashington Post Even A 15-Minute Walk May Help Boost Your Longevity W alking for at least 10 or 15 minutes at a time might do more for your health and longevity than spreading your steps out into shorter walks throughout the day, a large-scale study suggests. The study, published in October, looked at the effects of how people gather their steps each day, as well as how many steps they take and the associations that these patterns of daily activity might have with risks for heart disease and premature death. The data showed that middle-aged and older people in the study who grouped some of their steps into walks lasting 15 continuous minutes or more were about half as likely to develop heart disease in the near term as those who rarely walked for that long at one time. The people taking longer walks were also less likely to die during the years-long study from any cause. “With physical activity, we know that the more the bet- ter,” said Emmanuel Stamatakis, a professor of physical activity, lifestyle and population health at the University of Sydney in Australia and lead author of the study. “But we haven’t had a very good understanding of the role of the pattern” of that activity. The study builds on earlier research, including from Stamatakis’s lab, exploring how to intensify the health benefits of even a little physical activity. But it also raises questions about whether it’s possible to overthink the simple walk. MOST OF US AREN’T MOVING ENOUGH “This study is about identifying ways to maximize what people get out of their walking,” Stamatakis said. Walking may be the most common physical activity for almost everyone. But many of us do little of it. Current physical activity guidelines recommend 150 minutes a week of moderate activity, which would include brisk walking. But “75 to 80 percent of people are insufficiently ac- tive,” Stamatakis said, meaning they don’t meet those guidelines. Quite a few rarely exercise at all. It should be possible, though, to make even the brief- est amounts of movement better for us, Stamatakis and his colleagues have speculated. In past studies, they have shown that picking up the pace of brief daily activities, such as housework, is associated with lower risks for heart disease and early death. The extra intensity seemed to make everyday chores and actions more potent for people’s health. But not everyone can or wishes to up the vigor of their vacuuming. Were there other ways to get more health bang from just being in motion, Stamatakis and his colleagues wondered?What about if people’s activities simply lasted a little longer? -TheWashington Post By Gretchen Reynolds (extract) - Continued From Page 18