A Brookings Institution analysis reveals more than 145,000 U.S. citizen children nationwide have already experienced a parent being taken into ICE custody since President Donald Trump returned to office, and Washington, D.C., is among the hardest-hit places in the nation.
The report, released this week, examined roughly 400,000 immigration detentions tied to interior arrests between Jan. 20, 2025, and April 9, 2026, and concluded that thousands of children in the District are now living through the fallout of aggressive immigration enforcement policies.
Brookings researchers found that Washington and Texas recorded the nation’s highest share of citizen children affected by parental detention, with more than five out of every 1,000 U.S. citizen children in D.C. estimated to have experienced a parent’s detention. The report warned that the federal government still lacks any systematic method for tracking what happens to those children after a parent disappears into detention or deportation proceedings.
“There are a lot of families that are in the situation that are not being written down,” Tara Watson, one of the report’s authors, told ProPublica. “Important both for transparency and from a child health and wellbeing perspective to know what’s happening to the kids. How many of them are leaving the U.S.? How many of them are staying in the U.S. with close family? How many of them do we really not know what their situation is?”
The Brookings report said ICE detentions now stretch far beyond isolated enforcement actions and have become part of a massive detention operation fueled by billions of dollars in federal funding expansion. Researchers noted that about 60,000 immigrants are currently being held in detention facilities nationwide and that Congress allocated approximately $45 billion for detention expansion in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Using data from the Deportation Data Project, the American Community Survey, and ICE detention records, researchers estimated that about 205,000 children overall have had a parent detained, including approximately 145,000 U.S. citizens. More than 22,000 citizen children were estimated to have lost all co-resident parental care because every parent in the household was detained.
The nine-page Brookings report also found that more than one-third of affected children are under age 6. Another 36% are between ages 6 and 12.
Researchers said many parents avoid reporting their children to immigration agents out of fear that relatives or caregivers could also become targets. The report pointed to ICE’s “Detained Parent Directive,” updated in 2025, which still requires agents to ask detained immigrants about children, but anecdotal evidence suggests those questions are often skipped.
Brookings researchers wrote that the official Department of Homeland Security count of detained parents “is almost certainly a substantial undercount.”
ProPublica reported that its own investigation, which used a more conservative methodology based on government records obtained through litigation, identified at least 11,000 American children whose parents had been detained during the first seven months of Trump’s second term. The outlet also reported that immigration authorities have been deporting mothers of American children at roughly four times the daily rate seen under President Joe Biden.
The Brookings analysis said many children never formally enter the child welfare system because families attempt to avoid any government scrutiny. Parents often leave children with relatives, friends, pastors, or trusted community members. Researchers estimated only about 5% of children left without any co-resident parent eventually receive formal child welfare services.
The report described a fragmented system in which ICE, child welfare agencies, schools, and local governments often operate independently, leaving children effectively invisible once a parent is detained. Researchers wrote that some child welfare agencies intentionally avoid documenting immigration-related separations because families fear additional enforcement actions.
ProPublica documented one case involving a Honduran mother separated from her breastfeeding infant after ICE agents arrested both parents simultaneously. According to the report, the family’s pastor had to quickly step in to care for the baby and the couple’s 8-year-old daughter.
Brookings researchers warned that the current numbers could represent only the beginning. The report estimated that approximately 13 million adults in the United States either lack permanent legal status or hold only temporary protections, and that their households include more than 4.6 million U.S. citizen children potentially vulnerable to family separation if detention efforts continue expanding.
“At a minimum, DHS should collect and publicly report accurate data on the number of parents facing detention or deportation, as well as the number of U.S. citizen children who leave the country following a parent’s removal,” the report stated. “The absence of consistent and comprehensive data obscures the true scale of children affected by immigration enforcement and undermines the ability of policymakers, service providers, and communities to adequately assess and respond to their needs.”
