"After three months in immigration detention, 1,500 miles (2,400km) away from her 13-month-old daughter, LT was running out of options. Her baby, who was allergic to formula and had other food sensitivities, had been vomiting constantly and needed breastmilk. But the government refused to release LT an asylum seeker from Haiti on bond. So, the family's pediatrician petitioned the government to allow her to pump and mail her breastmilk from the Dilley detention center in Texas to her baby in Florida. That request was denied."
"Desperate, LT asked whether her child could be brought into the detention center to be with her. The government denied that, too, she said, on the grounds that the child, who is a US citizen, couldn't be kept at an immigration detention center. I'm terrified of losing my baby, she said. The US government has targeted thousands of parents like LT for deportation since Donald Trump took office in January 2025."
"A Guardian analysis of government records has found that, during the first seven months of his presidency, the administration arrested the parents of at least 27,000 children. During this period in 2025, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was deporting about twice as many parents each month compared with 2024. The records do not detail how many of these children were detained or deported with their parents, and how many families were split up."
"In thousands of cases, DHS sought to deport parents who had a different citizenship or nationality than their children, creating major legal and logistical barriers to keeping families together. The Guardian's analysis also revealed: During the first seven months of 2025, the administration arrested 18,400 parents including 15,000 fathers and 3,000 mothers. They are the parents of 27,000 to 32,000 children. The administration arrested the parents of at least 12,000 US"
A parent detained in immigration custody sought ways to care for a 13-month-old US-citizen child who needed breastmilk due to formula allergies. Requests to release the parent on bond were denied, and a request to pump and mail breastmilk from a Texas detention center to Florida was also denied. The parent then asked to bring the child into the detention center, but the government refused, citing rules against keeping a US citizen child in immigration detention. Government records show that since January 2025, thousands of parents have been arrested for deportation, including many parents of US-citizen children. DHS deportations increased compared with 2024, and legal and logistical barriers made family unity difficult.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]