WASHINGTON DC — More than 145,000 US citizen children have likely had a parent detained by immigration authorities since the start of President Donald Trump's second term in January, according to a Brookings Institution report released this month. The report estimates that about 146,635 US citizen children have had a parent detained during the mass deportation campaign the Trump administration began after retaking office.

More than 22,000 of those children experienced the detention of all of their co-resident parents, the report found. Roughly 36% of the affected children were younger than six years old.

The largest share of US citizen children with a detained parent are linked to Mexico, accounting for nearly 54%, according to the report. Children with parents from Guatemala and Honduras together make up more than 25%. Washington DC and Texas have had the highest share of American children with an affected parent, with more than five per 1,000 facing parental immigration detention.

Brookings researchers used demographic data from the Detention Data Project, matching detainees' characteristics with similar undocumented individuals identified in the American Community Survey. The report estimates that roughly 13 million adults in the United States are undocumented or hold only limited legal protections, and that more than 4.6 million US citizen children live with at least one parent vulnerable to deportation. About 2.5 million US citizen children could face the detention of all parents in their household.

The report stated that "For both logistical and political reasons, the administration will not achieve its stated goal of removing every unauthorized immigrant from the United States." It recommended that "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 US citizen children who leave the country following a parent's removal." The report also stated that "As immigration enforcement expands, ensuring that affected children have access to basic supports and protections should be understood not as optional, but as a necessary governmental responsibility tied to the foreseeable consequences of family separation and displacement."

According to US Department of Homeland Security data, the agency reported 18,277 detainees with US citizen children in fiscal year 2025. A DHS spokesperson said "ICE does not separate families" and that "Being in detention is a choice." The spokesperson said "Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with past administrations' immigration enforcement."

A March report by the Women's Refugee Commission and Physicians for Human Rights found that the Trump administration deported many immigrant parents without asking whether they had children or allowing them to decide if their children would accompany them. Separate findings from a Guardian investigation indicated the administration arrested about 2,300 parents and deported about 1,400 parents each month in 2025, nearly double the monthly deportation rate recorded in 2024 during the end of Joe Biden's presidency.