Brookings Estimates 145,000 US Citizen Children With Detained Parent Since Jan 2025

A new analysis estimates that more than 145,000 U.S. citizen children have experienced the detention of at least one parent since the beginning of the current presidential administration in January 2025. The report, released Monday by the Brookings Institution, concludes that federal data substantially undercounts the scale of family disruption resulting from expanded immigration enforcement operations.

Researchers estimate that approximately 146,635 U.S. citizen children had a parent detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement between January 2025 and April 2026. During that period, ICE carried out roughly 400,000 detentions. The report further estimates that more than 22,000 children experienced the detention of all parents living in their household, leaving them without a live-in parent.

The findings suggest a significantly broader impact than the administration's earlier "zero tolerance" policy at the U.S.-Mexico border, which involved an estimated 5,500 children. The current pattern is described as nationwide, stemming from interior enforcement within communities across the United States.

According to the analysis, very young children represent a significant portion of...