![\"Maria](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/20260625CityLimitsMariaMercado-6896.jpg\")
Mar\u00eda Mercado near her apartment building in East Harlem in June. (Adi Talwar\/City Limits) <\/p>\nSince Trump returned to office in 2025, hundreds of immigrant families in the city have completed standby guardian designation forms\u2014to ensure their children have an adult to care for them in case they\u2019re detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).<\/p>\n
Mar\u00eda Mercado near her apartment building in East Harlem in June. (Adi Talwar\/City Limits) <\/p>\n
On Fridays, Mar\u00eda Mercado, 65, looks after two of her friends\u2019 daughters, who see her as their \u201cmadrina,\u201d or godmother.<\/p>\n
The girls\u2019 parents\u2014undocumented immigrants living in Harlem\u2014have designated her the standby guardian<\/a>, which would grant her custodial and caregiving rights in case something happens to them.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s a role that Mercado\u2014an activist for more than two decades and a member of Movement for Justice in El Barrio<\/a>\u2014has played for four other New York City immigrant families over the last several years. In each case, the parents involved feared the same possibility: that they\u2019d be detained by immigration enforcement, and their kids would have no one to look out for them.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI showed solidarity with all these families,\u201d Mercado told a City Limits reporter in Spanish during a recent interview, her arm in a brace after being hit by a scooter a few weeks ago. \u201cThank God, the parents of the families I guard were never caught by immigration enforcement; they were never taken away, but we did protect the children.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the start of its second term last year, the Trump administration has intensified its immigration enforcement efforts, and agents have targeted Latino New Yorkers in particular<\/a>, advocates say. Impacted families are pondering the agonizing choice of who could care for their children in case of an arrest, detention, or deportation, and provide stability during a traumatic family separation.<\/p>\n Local legal service providers that help immigrant families prepare for such scenarios\u2014like creating an emergency kit in case of a parent\u2019s arrest<\/a>\u2014say they\u2019ve seen an increase in the number of people designating a standby guardian.<\/p>\n The New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) received 194 calls to its standby guardianship hotline<\/a> since launching it in January 2025. The organization has also held dozens of workshops explaining what guardianship means, trained more than 200 pro bono attorneys, and completed 401 \u201cDesignation of Standby Guardian\u201d forms<\/a> with families since the start of last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt is one of the hardest things to do to talk to a parent about the fact that they need to complete this form,\u201d said Luis Mancheno, director of immigrant justice at Legal Services NYC, which has helped an estimated 100 local families complete their designations.<\/p>\n \u2018With tears in their eyes\u2019<\/p>\n In 2018, as hundreds of separated migrant children<\/a> arrived at the Cayuga Centers facility in East Harlem amid the Trump administration\u2019s \u201czero tolerance\u201d border policy, New York passed legislation<\/a> to amend the state Surrogate\u2019s Court Procedure Act so that families facing \u201cadministrative separation\u201d could appoint a standby guardian.\u00a0<\/p>\n The amendment allows parents fearing immigration actions (such as arrest, detention, or deportation) to legally designate a trusted adult to care for their children, without relinquishing their parental rights.<\/p>\n In 2019, Mercado, along with the Movement for Justice in El Barrio<\/a>, a women-led community organization based in East Harlem, started organizing public workshops to help immigrant families understand the new provision.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest feeling in the room is a sense of relief,\u201d explained Julie Babayeva, supervising attorney for NYLAG\u2019s LegalHealth Unit. \u201cBecause immigrant families right now have so little control over what happens to them, and there is so much fear over being stopped on the street by ICE or being arrested at your next scheduled appointments or check-in with immigration, that you never used to fear going to, because it was really routine.\u201d<\/p>\n Mercado became one of the first guardians in the city during the first Trump administration, when her friends\u2014undocumented immigrants from Mexico with three American daughters, whom she takes care of once a week\u2014signed the designation form.<\/p>\n \u201cThe parents, with tears in their eyes, signed,\u201d Mercado recalled of the scene. \u201cThose moments were really tough.\u201d<\/p>\n There is no limit on the number of families someone can be a standby guardian for, though attorneys said it\u2019s unusual for a person to do so multiple times, as in Mercado\u2019s case.\u00a0<\/p>\n When parents sign, they\u2019re giving the guardian power over their children without terminating their parental rights. That\u2019s one of the most common misconceptions, Babayeva explained. Completing the form only appoints the guardian, and parents can cancel the designation at any time.\u00a0<\/p>\n Guardianship also only activates when a \u201ctriggering event\u201d occurs and a parent is separated from their child. Should this happen, within the first two months, the designated guardian must file for official guardianship in court to continue the arrangement. Otherwise, their decision-making power ends after 60 days.<\/p>\n Although legal providers assist with the paperwork, they do not know how many guardians have stepped into this role, making it difficult to assess its use so far in the city. The New York State Unified Court System did not provide information about how many standby guardianship forms have been activated or denied in recent years.<\/p>\n Babayeva explained that one of the challenges in tracking such cases is that some guardians use the form only within the 60-day window. For example, a guardian might use their authority to reunify a child with a deported parent, so they don\u2019t ultimately need to file for continued custody.<\/p>\n A trusted stranger\u00a0<\/p>\n As a single mother, Mercado said she sympathized with immigrant families wondering what would happen to their children if ICE detains them.<\/p>\n If parents haven\u2019t picked a standby guardian and they\u2019re arrested, relatives or close family friends can still go to Family Court and file a regular guardianship petition. But without a signed standby guardianship document, there\u2019s no clear record of the parents\u2019 wishes, attorneys explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n This can complicate things and make it harder for the judge to decide who should care for the child, and can increase the chance that they end up in foster care, even if only for a short time, while the system figures out who can legally take them home.<\/p>\n While many undocumented immigrants who have lived in the country for a long time have extended family nearby, many recent arrivals often lack those networks.<\/p>\n That\u2019s how Mercado became the standby guardian for four other families. In those cases, the parents found her after attending the meetings she and the Movement for Justice in El Barrio organized, and then, out of desperation and fear, entrusted their children to her potential care.<\/p>\n \u201cI can assure you before God, before the Bible, that I won\u2019t mistreat your children, so you can rest easy. And no matter what happens, I\u2019ll call you wherever you are, so you can feel safe knowing your children are with me,\u201d Mercado recalled telling these parents to put their minds at ease. The parents declined to speak for this story out of privacy concerns.<\/p>\n \u201cAt first it\u2019s hard, but then we started to build trust,\u201d Mercado recalled. \u201cThey began to feel kind of relieved of that burden they carried in their hearts about their children\u2014because nobody wants to leave their children in the hands of strangers. But after a while, we became closer friends; I\u2019d visit them, they\u2019d visit me, and our friendship just grew from there.\u201d<\/p>\n In New York, standby guardianship can be traced back to the height of the AIDS crisis in 1992, when it helped sick parents designate a guardian for their children in case they became incapacitated or died.<\/p>\n NYLAG staff said they helped an undocumented mother recently diagnosed with a brain tumor to complete the guardianship form for her two foreign-born children, while her cognitive capacity was declining.<\/p>\n Both Mancheno and Danielle Hunter, from the standby guardianship project at NYLAG, highlighted the vulnerability of single immigrant parents without family support.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you are a single parent, you know the next in line to be able to take care of your children is the government. So, to avoid that, parents definitely need to do one of these forms and processes to make sure that it\u2019s not the government that takes their children, but someone that they trust,\u201d Mancheno said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since 2025, almost a quarter of the families NYLAG assisted with standby guardianships were single-parent households.<\/p>\n \u201cWe approach them with a lot of empathy, with a lot of care, and understanding that this is a hard thing to even imagine happening to your family,\u201d said Babayeva.\u00a0<\/p>\n Attorneys and Mercado explained that, after signing, families often express how grateful they are to have a plan in place, which, to a small extent, alleviates some of the mounting fear and uncertainty that has shadowed immigrant communities amid the federal crackdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey tell me I\u2019m their second mother\u2014that\u2019s what they call me\u2014that I\u2019m their second mother,\u201d Mercado said, referring to the kids she has known over the years. \u201cThat I\u2019m their grandma.\u201d<\/p>\n To reach the reporter behind this story, contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>. To reach the editor, contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n![\"separated](\"https:\/\/citylimits.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/trx_addons\/components\/lazy-load\/images\/placeholder.png\")
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2018 visiting an East Harlem facility housing immigrant children separated from their families at the border. The state updated its standby guardianship policies that year in response. (Benjamin Kanter\/Mayoral Photo Office)<\/p>\nMar\u00eda Mercado, her arm in a sling from a recent accident, near her apartment building in East Harlem last month. (Adi Talwar\/City LImits)<\/p>\n