A masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer walks back to his vehicle after a random stop January 9 in Minneapolis, Min. A new report says that over 100,000 U.S.-born children so far may have been separated from a parent during the second Trump administration. File Photo by Craig Lassig/UPI | License Photo
May 18 (UPI) -- The Trump administration's push to detain and deport immigrants has likely separated more than 200,000 children from at least one parent, a new report from the Brookings Institution said Monday.
About three-quarters of those children -- about 145,000 -- are likely U.S. citizens, the report said. This is significantly more than the number that could be expected based on data from the officials U.S. Department of Homeland Security, The New York Times reported. The researchers say the official statistics are likely an undercount.
The Brookings Institution said it used detainee demographics matched with information from the American Community Survey, a national household survey. It said that while about 400,000 immigrants have been detained between Jan. 20, 2025, and April 9, 2025, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel are supposed to ask if those it detains are parents, anecdotal evidence suggests that this question often is not asked or that those detained avoid mentioning their children to protect them.
