At least 11,000 children who are United States citizens have been left without their parents due to the wave of immigration detentions during the first 7 months of Donald Trump’s second term, which began in January 2025, according to a ProPublica investigation.
These measures have disproportionately affected Latino families, with an average of more than 50 children losing one of their parents every day due to immigration detentions, according to the investigation of that prestigious media, released this week.
Likewise, mothers are being deported at a rate four times higher than in the previous administration, that of Democrat Joe Biden (2021-2025), and the majority of those detained, 75%, do not have a serious criminal record, the media indicates.
According to ProPublica, the analysis presents the most detailed count to date of U.S. citizen children whose immigrant parents have been arrested, detained or deported.
It was based on I-213 records from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), obtained by the University of Washington, which include data on each detainee’s citizenship and number of minor children.
The data covers late 2021 to mid-2025 and only includes ICE arrests, not Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
“Once again, what we are witnessing is a calculated attack against working Latino families,” Beatriz López, executive director of Voto Latino, lamented in a statement.
«Targeting mothers. Separate families. Deport and imprison children. “These are acts of a regime, not a presidency, and they demand accountability,” he added.
