Human Impact Project

A 1-year-old unaccompanied migrant child appeared in Arizona immigration court without legal representation and was told to file an asylum application before the next hearing or face deportation. This follows the end of a federal contract with the Acacia Center for Justice that had funded legal representation for over 24,000 unaccompanied migrant children. Nonprofits allege new government-contracted attorneys from USCRI have remained silent during hearings, leaving children to represent themselves despite a court order requiring continued legal services.

The United States has deported hundreds of unaccompanied Mexican children on flights to southern Mexico cities including Tapachula, Villahermosa, and Mérida, where human rights organizations confirm more than 350 cases. Many children lack resources to return home safely and have become stranded in unfamiliar cities with inadequate local support services. Some children have disappeared from shelters, and human rights advocates have received information suggesting possible deaths of at least three children attempting to return to their home communities. The policy, discovered in December 2024, represents a shift from prior practice of rapid deportations at the land border where children received care through Mexico's child welfare system.

A Maryland federal judge held ICE in civil contempt for wrongfully deporting more than 50 unaccompanied minors in violation of a blanket court order barring their removal. The judge found that subsequent efforts to bring some of the minors back did not remedy the initial violation.

An 11-year-old unaccompanied migrant named Diego appeared alone before an immigration judge in New York City without legal representation, struggling to complete an asylum application in English. The hearing occurred after a federal contract funding legal services for detained immigrant children expired on July 31, leaving thousands of minors to represent themselves. Judge Lisa Ling, a former ICE prosecutor, gave Diego two and a half weeks to file his asylum application or face deportation, despite his expressed fear of returning to Guatemala. Multiple other unaccompanied children, some as young as 11, appeared in court that day without lawyers or adult advocates.

Liam, 15, was arrested by local police in May 2025 following a fight; ICE agents separated him from his father who arrived to pick him up and took both into custody. Liam was held in an ICE office in Burlington, Massachusetts, then transferred to an ORR shelter in Texas for three months before being moved to Groton, Connecticut. Whether ICE ever properly contacted his mother to inform her she could pick him up remains disputed; she said ICE called her while he was in Burlington but did not tell her she could retrieve him, and she did not hear from him again until he was in Texas. The government made contradictory statements about the mother's availability, at one point claiming ICE couldn't locate her, then claiming ICE asked her to pick him up but she refused, while also stating she was at the police station during his arrest. Liam grew anxious and depressed in the shelters; a psychological evaluation recommended his release "as soon as possible" for his well-being. Federal Judge Vernon Oliver called the government's claims "disturbing" and "full of significant incongruities," and ordered Liam's release 27 days after the lawsuit was filed; his mother picked him up the following day after 255 days of detention.

Jean, a 12-year-old from Haiti, was detained at the U.S. border and held in federal custody for 505 days, spending his 13th birthday in an ORR shelter in California and later a foster care program in New Haven, Connecticut. His family in Fort Lauderdale—his father, stepmother, and two sisters—had completed all required vetting, background checks, and home studies, yet the Office of Refugee Resettlement repeatedly requested documents his family could not obtain, including a Haitian death certificate from territory controlled by gangs. After his sisters were released to their stepmother, Jean remained detained; ORR cited a DNA test showing his father was not his biological parent, though his father said this changed nothing. A federal judge ultimately ruled the government's process "arbitrary and capricious" and ordered Jean's release in a case where the judge noted that unlawful detention "results in an injury that really can never be remedied."

Camila, a 5-year-old girl from Atlixco, Mexico, crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in summer 2025 and was detained in federal immigration custody for 118 days, separated from her mother who lived only a few miles away in New Haven, Connecticut. Unable to be taken by her parents due to their immigration status, the government classified her as "unaccompanied." During detention, Camila was held first in a CBP detention center, then in a Connecticut shelter where she was the youngest child present, and finally in an office building converted for federal use. She saw her mother, who has a pending legal residency application, for only one hour per week. A child psychiatrist's evaluation documented that Camila experienced nightmares, anxiety about family separation, and fear expressed through play. Her mother applied for custody but waited more than 90 days without receiving a decision, as the federal government repeatedly added requirements before deeming her application complete. Camila was released three days after her attorneys filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of her detention. She is now home with her mother and newborn brother, though she continues to experience separation anxiety and sleeps with her mother at night. During the same period, more than two dozen unaccompanied immigrant children were in federal custody in Connecticut on any given day, with some held for as long as 505 days.

Pavel Snegir, a Russian asylum seeker, was detained at Otay Mesa ICE facility after refusing to self-deport at San Diego airport in May 2025. ICE separated him from his 11-year-old son Aleksandr during the incident, threatening deportation and stating he may never see his son again if he did not comply. Both Pavel and Aleksandr passed initial asylum screening. After 11 months in ICE custody, Pavel was released following asylum approval. However, Aleksandr remained in Office of Refugee Resettlement custody at a youth shelter over one year after separation. Pavel's sponsorship request to reunify with his son was denied due to lack of stable housing and employment documentation, citing Trump administration policies that create barriers to family reunification.

An 8-year-old U.S. citizen was detained in a federally contracted shelter in Brooklyn for nearly seven months after being picked up at the Mexico-U.S. border. Despite his grandmother providing federal officials with his birth certificate establishing his U.S. citizenship through his mother, the Office of Refugee Resettlement did not investigate his citizenship status. An advocate documented that the child appeared sad, isolated, and reluctant to engage during detention. He was released only after an immigration judge ruled him a U.S. citizen and a federal lawsuit was filed. He was subsequently placed with his grandmother in Brooklyn.

A three-year-old girl was separated from her mother at the U.S.-Mexico border on September 16, 2025, and placed in federal immigration custody under the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). She was held in an ORR-funded foster home in Harlingen, Texas, where she was sexually abused by an older child in the home in November 2025. Her father, a legal permanent resident living in Chicago, filed a federal habeas corpus petition in February 2026 after ORR delayed reunification for five months despite his sponsor application being approved. ORR officials did not initially disclose the sexual abuse to the father. The girl was forensically examined and the allegations were reported to law enforcement. She was released to her father two days after the petition was filed.

J.R.C., an 11-year-old from Venezuela who had lived in El Paso for nearly four years, was detained alongside his father Jesus Eduardo Reyes Hermes on April 28, 2026, when ICE agents arrested them outside their South-Central El Paso home. The boy was separated from his father and placed in shelter custody under the Office of Refugee Resettlement, while his father was transferred to Camp East Montana detention facility. J.R.C. was attending school in El Paso, where he had learned some English and was developing academically, with a teacher he credited with helping him learn to read. After his father was released on bond in June and the boy's asylum case was denied, J.R.C. requested voluntary departure on July 7, 2026, to reunite with his mother and siblings in Venezuela and Colombia. He expressed both sadness at leaving his friends and school, and excitement about seeing his family.

A federal judge in Los Angeles ordered the Department of Homeland Security to stop using coercive language to pressure unaccompanied immigrant children to self-deport, ruling the practice violated a 40-year-old court mandate. Beginning in September 2025, DHS had advised detained minors they would face prolonged detention if they did not leave the U.S. and threatened to prosecute their sponsors. The judge rejected the government's request to end the longstanding safeguards protecting children's due process rights, citing language that "disturbingly mirrors" coercion documented in a 1985 case that established these protections.

Y.R., a 37-year-old undocumented Honduran immigrant, was arrested by ICE in April 2026 while in the process of obtaining custody of her niece and nephew, who had been held in a federal shelter for over a year after crossing the Texas-Mexico border in April 2025. Y.R. had completed nearly a year of government vetting, including background checks and DNA tests, to become their sponsor. According to ICE documents, agents located her with assistance from the Office of Refugee Resettlement after the Trump administration dropped rules prohibiting that office from sharing sponsor information with ICE. She was released on bond by an immigration judge in May 2026 and reunited with her 11-year-old niece and 14-year-old nephew, but remains in deportation proceedings. Her lawyer says the policy of arresting potential sponsors has a chilling effect on families seeking to care for unaccompanied children.

A 15-year-old was detained during an ICE raid at a clandestine club off San Pedro Avenue in San Antonio in November 2025, along with approximately 140 other people. Four months later, the teen remained in federal custody at a migrant children's shelter on San Antonio's South Side despite paperwork for his release being completed. The release process stalled after his father, who was handling the case, was detained while driving back from a job in Corpus Christi, creating additional complications as the family feared further detention if a parent came forward to secure his release.

A 14-year-old Brazilian national was detained by ICE agents in Marlborough, Massachusetts on March 10, 2026, during an operation targeting suspected gang members. She was transferred to a juvenile detention facility in New York without following proper legal procedures. A federal judge ordered her immediate release on March 12, 2026, finding the detention and out-of-state transfer violated constitutional protections and questioning why she was not turned over to state child welfare authorities instead. She was reunited with her aunt and uncle in Massachusetts but received a notice to appear in immigration court and now faces deportation to Brazil. Her attorney plans to challenge the deportation and petition for special immigrant juvenile status.

Maykel and his five cousins were detained in shelter facilities for four months after trekking hundreds of miles to reunite with their mother Maria. Under Trump administration rules, the children remained in detention despite their parent being available to care for them. Families across New York and the country are using habeas corpus petitions as a legal tool to challenge prolonged detentions of unaccompanied minors.

Nearly 50 Democratic members of Congress are demanding answers from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over allegations that the federal government is placing all pregnant unaccompanied migrant girls at a single San Benito, Texas shelter operated by Urban Strategies, where they lack adequate reproductive health care. The placement contradicts agency guidance requiring pregnant minors be placed in states where they can access full reproductive healthcare options, and has drawn objections from health and child welfare officials citing inadequate specialized care for high-risk pregnancies.

A 16-year-old Ecuadorian asylum seeker named Sebastian was detained by ICE agents in North Minneapolis in mid-January while on a food run. He was moved between multiple holding facilities, including a guarded hotel, before being flown to a youth shelter in Grand Rapids, Michigan. During his detention, his family and ICE's own attorneys reported having no record of him in custody. Lawyers located him after a week-long period.

A five-year-old U.S. citizen named Génesis Ester Gutiérrez Castellanos disappeared after being transferred to ICE custody following her mother's arrest on Monday morning. The child does not appear in ICE, ORR, CPS, or any Central Texas immigration detention facility databases. Family members are calling on the San Antonio ICE field office to locate the child so custody arrangements can be made while her mother remains detained.

ICE agents detained Sebastian, a 16-year-old Ecuadorian asylum-seeker, in Minneapolis in January 2026 during an interior arrest while he was driving alone, seizing his phone after he called his father. Despite his father living in the U.S., Sebastian was labeled an "unaccompanied minor" and transferred to the Bridgeway shelter in Michigan, making it difficult for his family and attorneys to locate him. The case illustrates how the "unaccompanied minor" designation can impede family unity protections and legal access even when a parent resides in the country. While in custody, Sebastian reported receiving vaccines without consent.

Lucy, a 3-year-old unaccompanied minor, was presented without legal representation before an immigration judge in Tucson, Arizona. According to reports, multiple unaccompanied immigrant minors are appearing in immigration court without legal representation or support due to federal budget cuts to organizations that previously provided assistance.

Carlos, a Venezuelan man with temporary protected status, was detained by ICE at a New Mexico immigration office in December 2025 after being called for what he believed was a reunification meeting with his 14-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter. Federal officials had previously vetted Carlos and told him his custody case was complete. When he arrived at the ICE office, officers attempted to force him to sign documents he did not understand. After refusing to sign, officers stripped his clothes, seized his belongings, and chained him by the neck, waist, and legs. Carlos said he felt "tricked" and that ICE "used my children to grab me." His two children had been in a federal shelter in Texas for nearly a year after crossing the border to reunite with him. According to reporting, the Trump administration's Office of Refugee Resettlement has begun coordinating with ICE to arrest parents and caregivers seeking custody of unaccompanied migrant children, reversing Obama-era restrictions on data sharing between the resettlement office and immigration enforcement.

Emmanuel Gonzalez-Garcia, a 16-year-old with autism, was separated from his mother Maria Garcia on October 4-5, 2025, while they were selling fruit as street vendors in Houston. After going missing, he was located by firefighters during a welfare check and told police he was homeless, providing a different name. Houston police turned him over to ICE, and he was placed in federal custody with the Office of Refugee Resettlement as an unaccompanied immigrant minor. After approximately 48-50 days in detention, a federal judge ruled that authorities lacked legal authority to detain him since he was not truly unaccompanied. He was reunited with his mother, though their immigration court cases remain pending.

A 16-year-old Ecuadorian student, Joel Camas, was arrested by ICE agents during a routine check-in appointment in Lower Manhattan on Thursday while attending Gotham Collaborative High School in the Bronx. Despite being granted Special Immigrant Juvenile Status in April—a legal protection designed for vulnerable minors—Camas was detained by immigration authorities.

Joel Camas, a 16-year-old SIJS-approved student at Gotham Collaborative High School in the Bronx, was detained by ICE during a required check-in on October 23, 2025, despite having an approved pathway to permanent residency. A Bronx County Family Court judge had ruled in December 2024 that remaining in the U.S. was in his best interest after his father abandoned him. The City of New York filed a brief supporting his release, arguing his detention disrupts his education and citing his strong academic record. Camas remains in Office of Refugee Resettlement custody while his removal order is stayed.

A 15-year-old boy with autism and special needs, Emmanuel González Garcia, went missing on October 4, 2025, after wandering away from his mother Maria García's fruit stand in Houston. Houston Police Department located him the next day but did not connect him with the existing missing person report due to a name discrepancy (Manuel vs. Emmanuel). HPD contacted ICE and transferred the boy to federal immigration custody. García was without knowledge of her son's whereabouts for nearly a week until an immigration attorney intervened. The teen is now in Office of Refugee Resettlement custody and is facing emergency appendix surgery. An investigation into the Houston Police Department's procedures was initiated following the incident.

The Trump administration attempted to repatriate 76 Guatemalan children from U.S. government custody in overnight operations. Children were woken from their beds and reported crying and vomiting. A federal judge temporarily blocked the removals after attorneys argued the government violated U.S. law protecting unaccompanied minors from deportation without due process. The children were returned to shelters after being placed on planes. Declarations indicated many had not requested to return and stated they feared danger if sent back to Guatemala.

A 15-year-old Mexican national was detained by Florida Highway Patrol in Tampa and transferred to Alligator Alcatraz, a detention facility in the Florida Everglades designed for adult detainees. The teenager initially claimed to be an adult, but was transferred to a shelter for migrant children after his age was confirmed. State and federal officials initially did not acknowledge the minor had been held at the facility before acknowledging it after media confirmation.

A.D., a 16-year-old from Guinea, was arrested by Suffolk County Police on May 16, 2025, and transferred to ICE, which held him in an adult detention facility at Moshannon Valley Processing Center for nearly two months due to a clerical error. ICE mistakenly believed he was 26 years old based on a secondary school entrance exam document from Guinea that erroneously listed his birth year as 2000, despite multiple federal and state documents—including his passport, birth certificate, and HHS records—showing he was born in May 2009. Federal Judge Marilyn J. Horan ordered ICE to transfer A.D. into the custody of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement while conducting an age reassessment. A.D. had fled Guinea in December 2023 after local police threatened to burn down his family home due to their Fulani heritage, and had been living in a foster home overseen by New York City's Administration for Children's Services when he was arrested.

A 16-year-old unaccompanied immigrant girl in Washington state was visited by ICE officials for a "welfare check" earlier in April. During the visit, the frightened girl messaged and called her legal representative expressing fear that her life would be upended. The visit was characterized by her attorney as causing terror and trauma, illustrating the impact of ICE's targeting of unaccompanied minors under the guise of welfare checks.

Unaccompanied migrant children, including a 4-year-old girl, are appearing in immigration court proceedings without legal representation after the Trump administration terminated a $200 million federal contract funding legal services for minors. Data shows nearly all children without attorneys are deported, compared to 23% of those with representation.