DILLEY, TEXAS — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained an average of 25 children aged three or younger daily from January 2025 to March 2026. This period saw at least 500 babies and toddlers held in ICE custody.
Federal records indicate that ICE detained at least 175 children aged three or younger for longer than 20 days during this time frame. A 2015 federal court opinion established a 20-day limit for detaining children in immigration custody, stemming from the 1997 Flores v. Reno settlement. The current administration resumed family detention in early 2025 and reopened the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, which is designated to hold families with children. The previous administration ended the practice of family immigration detention in 2021, and no children aged three or younger were held beyond the 20-day limit during its final 12 months.
Before January 2025, ICE detained an average of fewer than three children aged three or younger per day in the preceding 12-month period. Parents of detained children have stated that facility conditions coincided with illness and developmental changes in their children. Marsha Griffin, a pediatrics professor and co-founder of the executive committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Immigrant Child and Family Health, said. "The period of infancy and toddlerhood is probably the most harmful time of their lives to have them in detention," Griffin said. She added, "Our immigration system is breaking children."
A family consisting of Joani, her husband, and their two-year-old son was detained in March 2026 during an immigration appointment in California. Officials transferred Joani and her son to the Dilley facility, while her husband was moved to an adult detention center, where he was also handcuffed. At the Dilley facility, a two-year-old named Kaleth stopped eating for 12 days. Facility doctors stated that depression contributed to the child's refusal to eat, and the child also experienced vomiting and a cessation of bowel movements.
Another family, Alsu and Azat, entered the U.S. at a legal port of entry without visas after leaving Russia. They were concerned about political imprisonment and the potential placement of their one-year-old son in an orphanage. "We came here to escape prison. We wanted to be free. But once we arrived in America, we spent four months in detention," Azat said. This family was held at detention facilities in California and Texas for approximately four months. During their detention, the parents reported a shortage of age-appropriate toys and Russian-language books at the Dilley facility, and their child's active vocabulary decreased to the words "mom" and "dad." "The agency works to assess cases and discharge minors from custody as promptly as possible," ICE stated in a May 2026 court filing.