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When Child Protective Services and a police officer showed up at the home of former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, he assumed, as many people do, that this was an abuse of an otherwise well-meaning and well-functioning system. But what happened to Buttigieg’s family is not an anomaly. Every day, parents and children torn apart by the family regulation system 鈥� commonly referred to as the child welfare system 鈥� feel this same fear and helplessness.

Buttigieg described the 24 hours that he was separated from his 4-year-old twins as 鈥�.鈥� CPS had come to his Michigan home after an anonymous caller claimed Buttigieg had confessed violent crimes to a woman he met at a conference 鈥� an allegation authorities later determined was false. Upon CPS鈥檚 request, Buttigieg’s children were sent to their grandparents, and he was barred from being alone with them until they had been through forensic interviews. As day stretched into night, he and his husband had no idea what he was accused of, or whether their family would be allowed to stay together.

Buttigieg described the experience as an abuse of a system meant to protect 鈥渢he most vulnerable children from the most horrible threats.鈥� But rather than protect children, the family regulation system regularly targets and intrudes upon mostly , disproportionately impacting Black, brown, indigenous, and parents. Not because they are more likely to harm their kids than parents who do not belong to these marginalized groups, but because surveillance falls hardest on families who rely on public and government-funded programs and have the least power and resources to defend against CPS intervention.

What set Buttigieg apart was not that his family was treated unjustly, but that he had the money, legal representation and public support that families with fewer resources will never have. 

His experience highlights three devastating components of this system that need to be addressed.

The first is anonymous reporting. The false report levied against Buttigieg reached CPS because most states let anyone trigger an investigation without giving a name. Anonymous tips are by abusive former partners, landlords and neighbors, but they are overwhelmingly unfounded: . Texas and California moved to curb the practice in 2023 and 2024, and at the end of 2025 by requiring callers to give their names while keeping their identities confidential. Every other state should do the same.

Second is a largely invisible practice that separates families. It has many names 鈥� 鈥渒inship diversion,鈥� 鈥渉idden foster care,鈥� 鈥渟afety plans鈥� 鈥� but essentially, caseworkers pressure parents under the implicit or explicit threat that their kids will otherwise be put in foster care with strangers. Because no petition is filed and no judge is involved, to ensure that CPS has sufficient evidence to justify removal or checks that the new home is safe and appropriate. This unregulated practice has and even led to the . The ACLU and its partners have worked with a group of bipartisan congressional champions to introduce legislation to gather better data on how widespread this practice is.

Finally, parents should be given a lawyer the moment an investigation is initiated, not weeks later. In most states, a parent has no right to appointed counsel until the agency files a formal court petition, which can occur long after the most consequential decisions 鈥� including whether a child is removed 鈥� have already been made. In Buttigieg鈥檚 case, a petition was never filed at all. But the harm of separation begins the instant the caseworker knocks at the door. Timely access to counsel helps parents understand and assert their rights and prevents avoidable removals that traumatize families. Congress should pass legislation that incentivizes states to guarantee access to pre-petition representation for parents during child welfare investigations. 

This isn鈥檛 a partisan issue. After Buttigieg went public with his story, Wisconsin Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden on X that the same thing had happened to him and his family. Texas, one of the most populous red states in the nation, was the anonymous reporting and has passed legislation that addresses hidden foster care. Reining in the government鈥檚 power to enter a home and separate children from their parents is an issue that does not belong to one party. 

This should never have happened to Pete Buttigieg, or to , or or to . Banning anonymous reporting, ending hidden foster care and guaranteeing attorneys for parents as soon as CPS knocks on the door are just the start in the fight to curb government overreach and defend the right to family integrity. Lawmakers from across the political spectrum must join聽the parents and advocates fighting to ensure that no family is ripped apart by an unjust system.聽

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