Children abandoned in dingy juvenile cells amidst a mental health crisis, left to rot in fluorescent-lit cubicle offices overnight with strangers, dumped in emergency rooms and deprieved of access to adequate medical care, and cuffed in full-body shackles as they are displaced from one facility to another with little explanation—all while awaiting placement in foster homes that promise no better conditions if not worse.
Countless cases of children kidnapped from their families in broad daylight and detained unjustly for months on end, as their parents are gaslit, criminalized, and forced to fight for their babies’ safe return home. And a history of “not believing children,” when they speak up about instances of abuse and neglect in their foster homes–with 91% of all abuse allegations written off as “unfounded” by agency investigators. Together, these horrid conditions, nightmare abductions, and denial of abuse allegations define the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, or as we rightfully refer to it here, the Department of Child-Abuse and Family Separation (DCFS).
While DCFS claims to “promote the safety and well-being of children,” one look at the agency’s lengthy track record — where between 100-200 children die while in DCFS custody each year — shows that it cares very little about these kids. In addition to cases of torture, neglect, and death, the injustices of family separation are also coming to the surface.
Year after year, DCFS is the subject of major media outlet exposure pieces about these issues, with an endless lineup of young adults and parents speaking to how they have been victimized by the agency’s negligence. But the revolving door of DCFS directors (20 different people over the last 15 years) serves to pass the buck to the next chump who claims they can fix the agency, as victims continue to pile up. The consequence of this recurring horror show is a kind of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation that leaves children and families with no outlet for assistance when abuse and neglect does occur. For far too many families, this is the reality they are subjected to under U.S. capitalism-imperialism.
No care for children and families under capitalism-imperialism
In the US, millions of people are subjected to the corrosive social relations and conditions that stem from capitalism-imperialism. With no access to work, people are pushed into poverty, where they are corralled into degrading living conditions that fail to meet their needs. Whatever family units emerge in this chaotic environment are steeped in the consequences of this deprivation, including crime and mental illness, which break down important social bonds. Further still, patriarchy sanctions domestic violence and the oppression of women and children. This, combined with the criminalization and mass incarceration of Black and Latino men, creates dysfunctional family relationships. The outcome is a social crisis where social bonds and family units are routinely fractured, putting kids in danger.
If we had a social system that truly had the best interests of the masses of people at heart, the intervention of child welfare agencies like DCFS in these situations could have a positive impact. But DCFS only adds to this chaos. Sometimes kids are ripped from their families with zero justification; sometimes they are removed from a bad family situation only to be placed in an even more dangerous foster home or even incarcerated in juvenile detention or a psychiatric facility just because a foster placement isn’t available. Too often, children who have been removed from an abusive home are returned only to later die at the hands of their caretakers because DCFS failed to follow up. And although the agency is quick to intervene and fuck up people’s lives on an arbitrary basis, when kids, parents, teachers, or healthcare professionals are deperate enough to reach out for help with legitimately awful situations, they are often dismissed and ignored, with DCFS citing a lack of resources and personnel. While it is true that social and child welfare agencies are notoriously underfunded, the DCFS budget has nearly doubled in the last five years ($1.18 billion in fiscal year 2019 to just over $2 billion for fiscal year 2024), with many of the funds spent on hiring more personnel. Yet, the agency’s ability to protect the kids under its care remains abysmal.
It becomes clear then that the purpose of child welfare under capitalism-imperialism is not to protect children or support vulnerable families. Instead the system has gutted social welfare, choosing to criminalize parents for being poor in order to justify family separation. This all the while anti-abortion activists and Christian fundamentalists advocate for the rights of “the unborn,” while the system continues to claw back resources for actual living children and their families. Even when instances of abuse and neglect do arise, the only “solution” the system can offer is further trauma by putting children in foster care.
Immigrant families are also subjected to the a apathy of capitalism-imperialism towards families. Forced to flee their home countries by the destructive nature of US imperialism, when immigrant families arrive in the US they are left hawking on the street with their children or exploited for pennies doing backbreaking work just to make ends meet. While a step up from the severe deprivations in their home countries, this is the extent of the “American Dream” for a majority of migrants. But despite the deplorable conditions immigrant families are subjected to under this system, the ruling class spins a false narrative of copious handouts and easy-living at the expense of “US citizens.” As a result, oppressed communities are taught to fight each other rather than their common enemy: the ruling class.
As an arm of the repression under capitalism-imperialism, DCFS aids and abets this nightmare by destabilizing and further traumatizing the masses who are the most oppressed and most likely to fight back against this system. And where immigrant parents and poor families alike are left on the street with their children to hustle for their livelihood, the agency turns a cold shoulder. DCFS shows itself as part of the problem, not the solution, to the horrors of family life under the system.
Every mother’s worst nightmare
The abuses and trauma of DCFS come into clear focus through the nightmare stories of two mothers: Dequisha Johnson and Marisol Angel-Tapia.
In April of this year, Dequisha Johnson’s two young children were taken from her by DCFS because she decided not to cooperate in an unrelated criminal case against her partner, Vincent Hill. Her babies were so neglected and abused in foster care that they required emergency medical attention by the time Dequisha and her family were able to get them placed with their grandmother. On June 10th, Dequisha’s children were kidnapped from their grandmother for the second time and thrown in separate foster homes. At the time of writing, Dequisha doesn’t even know where they are.
Dequisha has been threatened by everyone from the state’s attorney to CPD to DCFS workers for speaking out against the abduction of her children. While the loss of her children has left Dequisha in unspeakable turmoil, she is determined to get justice for Vincent and her children and have her children returned to her custody.
Marisol Angel-Tapia’s 7-month-old baby was taken from her in 2023 because she brought him to the doctor with a sunburn. Marisol and her partner Victor were penalized for being Spanish speakers, and DCFS workers didn’t even explain to them what was happening or why, and refused to get a translator. Although other family members were ready to care for the baby until the situation was resolved, he was passed around to five different foster homes until he was returned three months later. The family’s attorney accurately summed up the situation in words that can apply to thousands of other families: “The tragic irony of this entire situation is that this baby was taken from his loving family because of alleged abuse and neglect at the hands of his parents. When in reality the true abuse and neglect began at the hands of DCFS.”
Fight back
DCFS thugs (and any child protective service nationwide) are kidnapping children and separating families the same way ICE thugs are snatching people and separating families across the US. We applaud the bold resistance against ICE in recent militant confrontations undertaken by Black and Latino youth in cities like LA, and we call on rebels to lend their support and recognize that ICE and DCFS are two sides of the same coin. Both agencies operate as repressive arms waging war on oppressed families. This trauma for children and their families cannot be normalized. If your family has been traumatized by DCFS or ICE, hit us up and share your story. For those who want to stand with those under the gun of this system, you can also hit us up to get involved in our work! It’s time for us to come together to fight this system–not to win incremental reforms, or to be able to claim on paper that a few less of our children are being traumatized next year, but to struggle against the foundations of this rotten institution and fight to win a better world for parents to raise their families and a better future for our children.
Dare to Struggle 