Family Detention

The United States should be a place of refuge for people around the world seeking a better life or who face violence, starvation, poverty, war, or persecution. Rather than providing protection and living up to our ideals, the United States has a history of detaining parents and children seeking asylum in family detention centers. 

Family detention is the inhumane and unjust policy of jailing immigrant parents with their children – including babies. Upon arrival in the U.S. families are locked up in detention centers, with little access to legal and social services, often experiencing widespread human and civil rights violations.

The alarming rise of family detention was met with the increasing demand for an end to the policy altogether. In 2015 a federal court ruling called on the government to release children with their mothers from family detention. Judge Dolly Gee found the current practice in violation of the Flores Settlement, an agreement that set the standard for the detention and treatment of immigrant children in the U.S. since 1997.

In 2017, the Trump administration began separating families seeking asylum in order to continue detaining migrant parents. This was intended to punish parents, coerce them into abandoning their asylum claims, and deter other families from migrating in the future. Amid public outcry against the cruel practice, the administration ended its large-scale family separation policy in June 2018, though the practice continued in smaller numbers for months after. In May 2019, ICE looked to expand the practice once again by forcing detained parents into a false choice of remaining in detention indefinitely with their children or relinquishing custody so their child can be released without them.

After years of consistent demands by community organizers, legal service providers, immigrant justice organizations, and members of Congress to release parents and children from family detention, the Biden administration stopped detaining families in ICE detention centers in 2021 only for the Trump administration to shamefully resume the practice in 2025.

In March of 2025, the Trump administration reopened the South Texas Family Residential Center (“Dilley”). Following the passage of the reconciliation bill in the Summer of 2025, which gave the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) $45 billion dollars to expand immigration detention, the administration is reportedly planning to open three new or expanded family detention centers with a combined capacity to hold more than 5,700 people. More recent reporting shows that the administration is also considering retrofitting warehouses to detain thousands more people, including families. Reports about conditions in Dilley have shown the horror that awaits families inside. Family detention centers have a well-documented history of negligence and abuse, including inadequate medical and mental health care, unhealthy weight loss among children, and disciplinary tactics including threats to separate families.

Family detention, like all immigration detention, is on the wrong side of history. Childhood should be marked by joy, play, learning, and safety. It's a fleeting period of time that has a tremendous impact on setting the foundation for a person’s lifelong well-being – it must be protected. The government must officially end all policies of family detention and surveillance immediately.