Overview
- A joint analysis by MS NOW and The Marshall Project using Deportation Data Project records found that ICE detained more than 500 children age three or younger since January 2025, averaging about 25 such children per day.
- The reporting says roughly 175 of those children were held longer than a 20‑day limit set by a 2015 federal court interpretation of Flores v. Reno.
- Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, which was closed under President Biden and later reopened, is identified as the primary facility where many infants and toddlers were housed.
- The report includes family accounts of serious health and developmental problems in detained children, including extended refusal to eat, vomiting and at least one prolonged hospitalization that ICE has disputed.
- Officials for ICE, DHS and Dilley operator CoreCivic say infants receive age‑appropriate supplies and services and that the agencies are working to move people to their destinations, while advocacy groups and pediatric experts call for investigations and tighter oversight.