More than 145,000 minor US citizens have been separated from at least one parent as a result of President Donald Trump’s anti-migrant policies, according to a study by the Brookings Institution in Washington.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained about 400,000 people in the US between January 2025 and April 2026. The institute calculates that 205,000 children were affected, including 146,635 US citizens who had one or both parents detained. The study claims that 22,000 children had both parents detained.
Approximately 36% of the affected children were under the age of six. More than half (54%) of the children whose parents were detained were of Mexican descent, and another 25% had parents from Guatemala and Honduras.
The study authors note that ICE officers are required to ask detainees if they have children. However, according to the institute, in many cases immigrants are not asked about this, or they themselves do not talk about children for fear of negative consequences for them.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officially reported that 18,200 immigrants who have children with U.S. citizenship were apprehended in 2025. However, according to the researchers, this figure is “probably a significant underestimate.”
Little is known about what happens to children whose parents are detained, the study notes. Children without permission to stay in the country can be deported, but most are U.S. citizens, the piece notes. In some cases, a child may travel to the country of origin with deported parents, but there is no accurate data on the number of such cases. Based on conversations with community organisations and child protection agencies, the institute concluded that most children of detainees live with relatives or family friends.
“ICE doesn’t separate families. Parents are asked if they want to be deported with their children or if ICE will place the children in the custody of a safe person the parent specifies. This is consistent with the immigration enforcement policies of previous administrations,” a DHS spokesperson told The Guardian in a comment.
Donald Trump promised during the campaign to radically tighten immigration policies, specifically deporting those already in the country without proper status. After Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025, ICE has actually gained the right to mass deportations. For this purpose, they even defined a special quota – to detain for further deportation at least three thousand people a day.
During raids conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, several people were killed. Among those killed are two Minneapolis residents, U.S. citizens Rene Goode and Alex Pretty. Their deaths sparked widespread protests and sharp criticism of the Department of Homeland Security and the Trump administration.