New immigration enforcement data shows thousands of children arrested or detained, with California recording the highest number of child arrests and attorneys reporting family separations and confinement in hotels.
More than 8,500 children have been arrested by immigration authorities since Trump returned to office, as attorneys report family separations and children held in hotels and other temporary facilities.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested more than twice as many migrant children in the first seven months of 2026 as during the same period last year, according to an analysis by The Marshall Project, raising fresh concerns about the impact of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown on families.
The nonprofit news organization analyzed government records obtained by the Deportation Data Project, a research collaboration between the University of California, Berkeley, and UCLA. The figures, updated through early August, show that ICE arrested 8,592 children and detained 8,755 since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025.
The distinction matters: arrest and detention are separate measures. Some children may enter ICE custody through other channels, including transfers from Border Patrol, while others may be arrested without being detained for an extended period.
The vast majority of children included in ICE’s arrest data have no criminal convictions or pending criminal charges beyond immigration violations, which are generally civil rather than criminal matters, according to The Marshall Project.
Children held in hotels and temporary facilities
The increase in arrests comes amid reports from immigration attorneys who say some children and their families have been held in hotels and temporary holding rooms where access to lawyers and relatives can be difficult.
Becky Wolozin, an attorney with the National Center for Youth Law, described such locations as “black boxes,” where families can effectively disappear from the view of their relatives and legal representatives.
Court filings in litigation over protections for immigrant children documented 86 children who spent more than three days in hotels during February and March 2026. The ICE data analyzed by The Marshall Project does not specify when children were held in hotels, so the government records alone cannot establish the full extent of the practice.
In April, the federal judge overseeing the Flores settlement, which governs standards for the treatment of children in immigration custody, reiterated an order directing ICE to stop holding children in hotels, with a narrow exception for stays of one or two nights during transfers or before flights.
Federal officials have argued in court filings that some hotel stays were necessary because of flight delays or difficulties obtaining travel documents.
Family detention and separation
One case documented by The Marshall Project involved a mother from Long Island, New York, who attended a scheduled ICE check-in with her two children in February. Instead of returning home, the family was detained and transferred to a hotel in Texas.
The mother, identified by her initials because she feared government retaliation, said the family was not allowed to leave its room for nine days. She described constant monitoring by guards and limited opportunities to contact relatives.
Her attorney later said he could not locate the family through ICE’s online detainee locator, leaving him unable to provide timely legal assistance.
Attorneys have also reported cases in which children were separated from parents and held in hotels without relatives knowing their whereabouts. The accounts highlight concerns about transparency, access to counsel and the emotional toll of immigration detention on minors.
Arrests surge in several states
The increase has been especially sharp in some states. In Massachusetts and Florida, ICE arrested more children during the first seven months of 2026 than throughout all of 2025. In New York and New Jersey, arrests tripled, according to The Marshall Project.
California recorded the highest cumulative number of child arrests in the dataset, at 1,635, followed by Texas with 1,477 and New York with 1,336.
The growing number of arrests has also contributed to fear in immigrant communities. Nuala O’Doherty-Naranjo, an immigration attorney and founder of the Jackson Heights Immigration Center in New York City, said she has seen families become increasingly reluctant to participate in school and community activities.
She said she once encouraged immigrant families to enroll their children in school, attend English classes and join community groups. Now, she said, she increasingly finds herself warning them to hide.
Government disputes the data
The Department of Homeland Security disputed the accuracy of the Deportation Data Project’s records in a written statement but did not provide evidence supporting that claim or offer alternative figures, according to The Marshall Project.
The project describes its figures as best estimates based on government records obtained through public information requests. It also cautions that limitations in the underlying data mean its estimates of children affected by immigration enforcement may be undercounts.
The figures offer a measure of how immigration enforcement has reached children and families far beyond the U.S.-Mexico border. For attorneys working with detained minors, the central concerns remain whether children can access legal representation, stay connected to their families and receive appropriate care while in government custody.
