> “Any way you cut it, there are tens of thousands of children who have experienced parental detention since this president entered office,” said Tara Watson, a senior fellow at Brookings. “The majority are U.S. citizens,” she said.
> The researchers estimated that about 205,000 children have had a parent detained — typically a precursor to deportation — including about 145,000 who are citizens...

> The researchers said they considered 145,000 to be their most accurate estimate, and they predicted that it will grow, given that Congress allocated $45 billion in the One Big Beautiful Bill to expand detention capacity.
> Their estimate contrasts with figures released by D.H.S., which say the parents of about 60,000 U.S.-born children were arrested over the same time period. In their report, the researchers theorized the discrepancy was becauseD.H.S. was not consistently asking about children, or detainees were fearful of revealing they had children, worried about putting them or their caregivers at risk.

> “Almost every day we are contacted by a mom in detention who was arrested and taken from her kids,” said Ms. Revkin, whose group raises funds to help parents in detention pay for phone calls to their children. “This time the cruelty is often being inflicted on U.S.-citizen children.”
> The mother of Samantha Lopez, a 3-year-old U.S. citizen, was turned over to ICE last month by a sheriff’s deputy after a traffic stop while she was driving to her restaurant job, according to her husband.

> Ironically, having a U.S.-born child can keep families apart.
> Ms. Ordonez, who has been separated from her U.S.-born son for more than 10 months, said that she pleaded with agents long ago to allow the pair to stay in a family detention center while she fought her case. But American citizens cannot be held in immigration detention.

> Agents have warned Ms. Ordonez that her deportation is imminent, she said. To accompany his mother, Alonzo needs a passport. Ms. Ordonez has been struggling to arrange it, she added. Agents warned her recently that they would deport her without the boy if she did not obtain the document, leaving him with his current caretakers.
> “These aren’t family or anything, they are just caring for him as a favor,” she said, weeping. “If they deport me, I want to take my child.”

nytimes.com/2026/05/18/us/broo…

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