The Trump administration’s second term has seen a sharp rise in the arrest and detention of migrant children, with federal agents taking more than 8,500 minors into custody and holding thousands in makeshift facilities such as hotels and office building hold rooms. Lawyers and advocacy groups warn that many of these children are being kept beyond the reach of legal counsel and family, often in conditions described as “black boxes” where food, privacy and basic sanitation are inadequate. A federal judge overseeing the Flores settlement has repeatedly ordered an end to the practice, yet the numbers continue to climb.
Rising Numbers and Geographic Spread
Data obtained by the Deportation Data Project shows that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested more than twice as many children in the first seven months of 2026 as it did during the same period in 2025. Across the nation, the total number of children detained since President Trump returned to office exceeds 8,750 – a figure that slightly outstrips the total arrests because some minors enter detention via border patrol apprehensions.
The increase is not uniform. In Massachusetts and Florida, the number of child arrests in the first seven months of 2026 was more than double the total for all of 2025. In New York and New Jersey, arrests tripled over the same comparison. Elora Mukherjee, a lawyer and Columbia Law School professor who has represented over 100 children and parents in ICE detention, said:
> “As a nation we shouldn’t be cruel to children. This is the time of year when children should be back in school in their classrooms.”
Her comment underscores the disruption to education and normal childhood experiences caused by the enforcement surge.
Conditions in Makeshift Detention Sites
Many of the children are not placed in the traditional family‑residential centre at Dilley, Texas. Instead, they are held in hotels, office building hold rooms and other transient locations where oversight is limited. Becky Wolozin of the National Centre for Youth Law characterised these sites as “black boxes”, noting that families often disappear from view with little to no contact with lawyers or relatives.
A harrowing example came from Long Island, New York, where a woman identified only by her initials MSP accompanied her two children to a routine ICE check‑in. Instead of being released, the family was transported to a hotel in Texas and confined to a single room for nine days. MSP reported that two guards remained present at all times, even sitting outside the bathroom door, making basic use of the toilet or sleep uncomfortable. She was allowed only two three‑minute phone calls to her mother‑in‑law in New York and was warned that disclosing their location could result in the children being taken away. Her attorney later told the court that he could not locate the family in ICE’s detainee locator, leaving him unable to provide legal advice.
Michelle Brané, a former Department of Homeland Security official under President Biden and now executive director of the advocacy group Together and Free, described additional cases: an 11‑year‑old kept in a hotel room for five days while his father was sent to an adult immigrant camp, and a baby accompanied by two young children who were held without their mother for about ten days before being reunited and placed on a flight to Venezuela. Brané criticised the government’s justification, saying:
> “The only reason this would benefit the government… is to instil fear and chaos and cruelty and frighten people into getting their numbers of removed individuals up.”
Legal Challenges and Judicial Oversight
The Flores settlement, a long‑standing court agreement governing the detention of migrant children, has become a focal point of resistance. In April 2026, the federal judge overseeing the settlement reiterated an order for ICE to cease holding children in hotels, permitting only a narrow exception for brief, one‑ to two‑night stays while in transit or awaiting flights. The judge also appointed an independent monitor authorised to inspect hotels where children are detained.
Despite the directive, court filings related to the Flores case documented 86 children who had been held for more than three days in hotels during February and March 2026. The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the specific allegations, stating in a written response that the data supplied by ICE via the Deportation Data Project was inaccurate, though it offered no evidence to support that claim or alternative figures.
Nuala O’Doherty‑Naranjo, an attorney and founder of the Jackson Heights Immigration Centre in New York City, said the rising arrests have created a chilling effect in immigrant communities. She noted seeing ICE patrols driving up and down streets outside her office and sensing fear among high‑school students. Where she once encouraged families to register children for school, attend English classes and join community groups, she now finds herself advising:
> “I was wrong. Hide.”
Why it Matters
The escalation in child detentions under the current administration is not merely a statistical anomaly; it represents a systematic shift that places vulnerable minors beyond the protection of legal safeguards and familial support. By confining children in opaque settings such as hotels and hold rooms, the government erodes the ability of lawyers to advocate, of families to reunite, and of courts to enforce existing protections like the Flores settlement. The human cost – disrupted education, trauma, and the pervasive fear that drives communities underground – threatens to undermine long‑standing principles of due process and humanitarian treatment that have historically guided U.S. immigration policy. If left unchecked, this trend risks normalising a practice where the state’s enforcement objectives are pursued at the expense of the most vulnerable, setting a dangerous precedent for future administrations.
