‘You do your work with fear’: San Diego child care providers on edge amid harassment, funding threat

Some San Diego child care providers say they are being harassed and fear for their safety amid a campaign by conservative activists and the Trump administration over broad but unsubstantiated suggestions of fraud.

Meanwhile, billions of dollars in child care funding is up in the air after the Trump administration last week moved to freeze $10 billion in funding for social services, including child care and cash assistance for low-income families, in five Democratic-led states until it investigates.

A New York federal judge temporarily halted the freeze on Friday, a day after the five states challenged the freeze in court. The states called it a politically motivated, “extraordinary and cruel action” and said the administration has shown neither evidence of fraud nor the legal authority to withhold mandated program funding.

The freeze could affect $5 billion in funding due to California that helps pay for state child care subsidy programs serving more than 300,000 children of low-income families. The subsidies come in the form of vouchers that families use to pay child care providers.

In the past week, conservative activists have been posting on social media the names and phone numbers of child care providers, including in San Diego County, suggesting without evidence that they are benefiting from public funding but not actually providing child care.

Several local providers say that since then, they have begun seeing people loitering outsi...