Since early January 2025, over 145,000 US citizen children have likely experienced having a parent detained by immigration authorities as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign, according to a Brookings Institution report released in May 2026 [1, 2]. The campaign has led to nearly 2,300 parents arrested and 1,400 deported per month in 2025, nearly double the monthly deportation rate under President Biden in 2024 [1].
The Brookings report estimates that about 146,635 US citizen children have been affected since the crackdown began, with approximately 22,000 children having both co-resident parents detained [1]. About 36% of these children are younger than six years old. The children affected mostly have familial origins in Mexico (around 54%), Guatemala, and Honduras (combined over 25%) [1]. Washington DC and Texas have the highest shares of children with detained parents, affecting more than 5 per 1,000 children in these regions [1].
An earlier investigation by The Guardian found 18,400 parents arrested in the first seven months of 2025, impacting roughly 32,000 children including at least 12,000 US citizen children [1]. The Department of Homeland Security reported 18,277 detainees with US citizen children in fiscal year 2025, but researchers consider this figure a substantial undercount due to detainees' fear of disclosure and the agency's lack of systematic data collection [1, 2]. Brookings researchers offer a wider estimate of over 200,000 children affected in total, with about 145,000 being US citizens [2].
Most children separated from detained parents do not enter formal foster care but are cared for by neighbors, relatives, or siblings who lack legal authority to act as caregivers, Sharon Cartagena, a family lawyer, said: "We see children in difficult situations, placed with neighbors or siblings without legal responsibility, or fathers unable to care for young children" [2]. The scale of separations far exceeds the roughly 5,500 children separated during the 2018 "zero tolerance" policy [2].
Cases like that of Ledy Ordonez illustrate the human toll. Ordonez, a single mother detained by ICE in San Antonio since July 2025, has been separated from her 2-year-old US citizen son. She said, "I never wanted to be separated from my only child. He is already walking and talking, and I have missed so much" [2].
Federal agencies and researchers continue to refine data on affected children. The next major update on detention numbers and family impacts is expected as part of ongoing monitoring in the coming months.
