Daily Number of Children in ICE Detention Surges Under Trump Administration

The number of children held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention has risen sharply under President Donald Trump’s administration, according to a January 29 report from the Marshall Project.

The analysis found that the average number of minors in ICE custody on any given day has jumped more than six-fold since the start of Trump’s second term, based on data obtained from the Deportation Data Project. Under Trump, ICE held about 170 children on an average day, up from roughly 25 per day during the last 16 months of the Biden administration. On some days, the number exceeded 400 children.

Children typically enter ICE custody when they are detained alongside a parent or guardian during enforcement actions such as workplace raids, interior arrests, or compliance checks.

Federal law and longstanding agreements govern how minors may be held in U.S. immigration custody. The 1997 Flores settlement, for example, generally requires that children be released from immigration detention without unnecessary delay and sets standards for facilities that house them. Court interpretations of Flores discourage holding children and their families together in ICE detention for longer than about 20 days.

Key Findings: Children in Detention

• The Marshall Project’s analysis counted at least 3,800 minors under age 18 booked into ICE detention since Trump’s administration began — a notable increase compared with prior years.
• More than 1,000 children were held longer than 20 days, exceeding the timeframe generally considered appropriate for minors in family detention.
• The Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, a facility reopened last year to house immigrant families, remains a central location for family detention, with lawmakers and advocates reporting more than 1,100 people, including infants and young children, held there at times.

Lawmakers and attorneys who have visited the facility described challenging conditions, with parents and children reporting limited activities and strained psychological well-being. The report says, “In court documents, families have described horrific conditions while detained with their children in Dilley. They reported moldy, worm-filled food and foul-tasting, undrinkable water. With little for children to do, some resorted to playing with rocks. Parents worried about the psychological toll of detention, describing children hitting themselves in their faces or wetting themselves despite being potty-trained.”