For Children Whose Parents Are Detained or Deported, a Scramble for Safe Harbors
Despite their status 鈥� thousands are U.S. citizens 鈥� they end up anywhere from foster care to their parents鈥� home countries to being left alone.
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Children whose caretakers are detained or deported face not only the loss of their loved ones, but, oftentimes, removal from their homes and schools 鈥� abrupt upheavals that can land them in one of many places.
Some, freshly pressed passports in hand, end up in their parents鈥� country of origin 鈥� even when it鈥檚 not their own.
Others are sent to live with family or friends while an unlucky number are placed in foster care, their parents鈥� rights in jeopardy and reunification precarious.
The teenagers among them are sometimes thrust into a parenting role themselves: This overnight push into adulthood can leave them managing mortgages while their peers are picking prom dresses in the first of many sacrifices, immigrant advocates told 蜜桃影视.
鈥淎 lot of these older siblings are forgoing college plans and looking for work, trying to figure out how to be mom and dad for their siblings,鈥� said Wendy D. Cervantes, director of immigration and immigrant families for The Center for Law and Social Policy.
An 18-year-old Texas resident was left without parents or his U.S.-born siblings more than a year ago when his entire family was stopped by federal agents as they were driving to get medical care for his seriously ill sister. All ended up being sent to Mexico. Using the pseudonym Fernando Hern谩ndez Garc铆a, the young man testified before a House and Senate hearing last week that he was forced to give up college in order to work full time to try and keep the family home.
There are measures in place to help families with this unwanted transition. In 2013, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued the , a federal guideline meant to ensure 鈥渋mmigration enforcement activities do not unnecessarily disrupt鈥� parental rights.
It allowed ICE to consider whether it needed to hold these immigrants. And if they were detained, the directive encouraged the agency to house them near their families so they could participate in child placement hearings.
The agency was also advised to arrange transportation to and from court or otherwise allow parents or legal guardians to participate in such proceedings by phone or video.
鈥淚t required some sort of cooperation between ICE and local child welfare agencies,鈥� Cervantes said.
But this directive has been under attack for years. It was weakened during the first Trump administration, bolstered in the Biden era and diminished once again when Trump took office for the second time 鈥� and launched a mass deportation campaign.
found that the parents of at least 11,000 U.S. citizen children were arrested and detained in the first seven months of Trump鈥檚 second term. The news site also determined the Trump administration is per day as did the Biden administration.
That 11,000 number will have ProPublica reported, if arrests and detentions continued at the same pace in the ensuing months.
The data obtained by ProPublica covers a period up to mid-August 2025. Some of the Trump administration鈥檚 most aggressive immigration enforcement sweeps occurred after that in targeted cities, including Chicago, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Minneapolis.
鈥淚 do fear in the months ahead that we could see more instances where kids unnecessarily end up in the child welfare system because of the way ICE has been conducting its raids,鈥� Cervantes said, adding its tactics have been carried out 鈥渋n a way that really doesn’t give us any assurances they are abiding by their own policy to allow parents to make decisions about what happens to their kids at the time of arrest.鈥�
Families too afraid to reach out
Added to this anxiety, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the execution of these and other directives, is in flux. The DHS is now in the second month of a partial government shutdown as congressional Democrats push to rein in the actions of federal immigrant agents and make them more publicly accountable.
The department is also in the midst of a leadership change: Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin will replace former Secretary Kristi Noem, who was
Despite concerns about his temperament 鈥� a former cage fighter, Mullin once tried to coax a union leader into a physical altercation during a Senate committee hearing 鈥� his nomination was .
It’s unclear how Mullin, a 2020 election denier, would wield his authority. But he has said he and recently defended the killing of two Minneapolis residents who protested the government鈥檚 immigration enforcement efforts, calling victim Alex Pretti 鈥渄eranged.鈥� He later said he should not have made the comment, but declined to apologize for it.
Parents considering their family鈥檚 future in the current environment are sure to wonder what comes next as they contemplate the limited tools available to them, including , which allows people subject to immigration enforcement in some states to designate a caretaker for their kids.
It鈥檚 a valuable lever, said Julie Babayeva, supervising attorney with the New York Legal Assistance Group: It goes into effect the moment someone is detained. But many families are reluctant to apply for it, she said.
鈥淲e have been talking to PTAs, schools and community organizations in heavily immigrant communities,鈥� Babayeva said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just difficult for people to trust this. They think, 鈥榃hat if I tell you my phone number and that leads to ICE coming to my house?鈥� People don’t understand that we’re not giving this information out to anyone, that it is confidential.鈥�
shows 19 million children in the U.S. have at least one immigrant parent and that 1 in 6 鈥� or 9 million school-aged children 鈥� live in a household with at least one noncitizen adult. An overwhelming majority of these kids are U.S. citizens.
A Los Angeles teacher, who asked to remain anonymous because of her own citizenship status, recalled the case of two elementary school-aged children 鈥� and a toddler 鈥� left with their nearly 80-year-old grandmother, who had to return to work to support them after their parents were taken by ICE.
Such disruptions inflict enormous psychological and emotional damage on children, she said.
鈥淭hey鈥檝e heard the rhetoric of Trump saying he鈥檚 going after criminals and though they know that鈥檚 not true, they still don鈥檛 understand why their parents would be targeted,鈥� she said.
Roughly were deported in Trump’s first year in office and of the in ICE detention as of February, more than 73% had no criminal convictions.
Eric Marquez, a teacher at New York City鈥檚 ELLIS Preparatory Academy, which serves older, immigrant students, said that from a classroom perspective, what stands out most is that these newcomers often present as remarkably composed.
鈥淭hey tend to put on a brave face, adapt quickly on the surface and rarely bring up in conversation the people in their lives who may have been detained or deported,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 often an understatedness to it.鈥�
At the same time, teachers can sometimes see the impact indirectly, including shifts in focus, attendance and energy, he said.
Ellis Prep鈥檚 own Dylan Contreras was among the first high school students to be detained by ICE when he was arrested after a May 2025 court appearance. Held in a Pennsylvania detention center for 10 months, he was and returned to school for the first time March 24.
Immigrant families are not the only ones puzzled and angry over the administration鈥檚 tactics. Residents in Springfield, Ohio, worried their Haitian neighbors will be deported because their Temporary Protective Status is in jeopardy, have stepped up to do something about it 鈥� in this case, house their children.
One woman, who asked not to be identified for fear of attracting stirred up by Trump, secured emergency foster care credentials to support kids who might need somewhere safe to stay while they wait for a more permanent placement. The process took eight weeks to complete, she told 蜜桃影视.
“I am ready for 0 to 18,” she said of the age of children she could take in at a moment’s notice. “I want to keep siblings together.鈥�
A sudden rush of unhoused kids felt imminent earlier this year when Haitians鈥� protective status was set to expire and word spread that federal immigration agents would soon arrive in Springfield to deport them. After some 600,000 Venezuelans lost their last year, a lawyer representing the group said 鈥渉undreds and potentially thousands of Venezuelan nationals (had)
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court prohibited the Trump administration from ending Haitian deportation protections and in the case in late April.
Separation not easily undone
Once separated, family reunification can be difficult, notes Gabrielle Oliveira, an associate professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education who has studied immigration for years. Bureaucratic hurdles mean it can take months for a U.S. citizen child to get a passport to join their parents in a foreign country.
Oliveira said, too, some of the children who enter foster care have family eager to shelter them but they won鈥檛 step forward because they are too afraid to interact with the government.
These new forms of family separation are among many fears undocumented immigrants face. But it鈥檚 not the worst of them, Oliveira and other advocates said: Detention is by far the most frightening prospect.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been harder and harder to get in touch with people who are detained,鈥� Oliveira said. 鈥淪ometimes months go by and (federal authorities) don’t even tell you where they are. So, parents are even more worried about that than the actual deportation.鈥�
And, she said, limited communication with family makes it challenging to come to a conclusion on child care.
鈥淵ou can’t make decisions,鈥� Oliveira said. 鈥淵ou can’t make phone calls. You can’t figure out what the plan is.鈥�
Already, Cervantes said, her office has seen the fallout.
鈥淲e’ve heard about 15- and 16-year-olds living by themselves for several weeks because their parents were detained and they had no idea where they were,鈥� she said. 鈥淚CE was not checking to make sure they were OK. These are U.S. citizen kids.鈥�
And there are other, practical issues that make it hard to reunite in a foreign country, Oliveira said, recalling one family trying to meet up in South America.
鈥淭he dad got deported and the mom was here with the kids, and then she was trying to leave and go back to Brazil 鈥� but she was nervous that if she went to the airport, she would be arrested,鈥� Oliveira said.
When children are left with undocumented relatives, it鈥檚 nearly impossible for them to leave the United States to deliver the kids to their parents, said Shaina Simenas, co-director for the Young Center鈥檚 Technical Assistance Program.
鈥淚f you have a young child that is left with another relative who has their own immigration needs, how would you get them to the country of origin?鈥� she said. 鈥淲e’re working with a lot of families who are from Venezuela, and there are so many challenges even getting Venezuelan passports 鈥� or getting flights to Venezuela. And, of course, there is the financial toll of buying international flights and paying for passports and travel documents.鈥�
Simenas believes poor record-keeping on the part of the government means a lack of accountability.
鈥淚CE doesn’t consistently and reliably identify whether adults are caregivers for children and so that alone makes it harder to track what might have happened to their children after a parent was taken,鈥� she said.
Many families separated during Trump鈥檚 first term have not seen justice, she noted. Nearly 1,000 children were still waiting to reunite with their parents in 2023, according to .
鈥淔or families being separated now,鈥� she said, 鈥淚 think there are even fewer ways to track them, to be able to support and ensure they have access to reunify.鈥�
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