A newly filed class-action lawsuit accuses Washington state’s child welfare system of failing to protect immigrant youth in its custody by neglecting their immigration-related legal needs, leaving them vulnerable to deportation and unable to access public benefits.
Federal data shows an increase in children entering foster care due to parental detention or deportation from 156 to 232 cases between fiscal years 2024 and 2025. The figures, drawn from only 34 states, are considered an undercount of the family separation occuring under Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
This analysis found that during the first seven months of Trump’s second term, the administration arrested the parents of at least 27,000 children, doubling Biden-era deportation rates and sparking what advocates call an unprecedented family separation crisis.
Under the Trump administration’s stricter vetting procedures, the average stay for unaccompanied migrant children in government shelters has ballooned from 30 days to roughly 200 days.
This analysis estimates that more than 145,000 U.S. citizen children have likely experienced a parent detained by ICE since January 2025, with tens of thousands more affected by deportation.
Nearly half a million immigrants have been detained since Trump’s second term began, but the fate of the U.S. citizen children they leave behind remains largely unknown.
Over 800,000 U.S. citizen children in Texas have an undocumented parent, and Trump’s immigration enforcement is fracturing those families.
The Trump administration’s sharp decline in migrant border crossings has led to the closure of a historic South Florida Catholic Charities shelter for unaccompanied minors.
The Trump administration has reversed a decades-old policy, now requiring foreigners seeking green cards to leave the U.S. and apply from their home countries.
The Trump administration is using migrant children in federal shelters to lure parents into immigration detention, with attorneys reporting that many caregivers are being arrested while attempting to reunite with their children.
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