An Atlantic investigation across Alabama, California, Illinois, Missouri, and Texas documents a new family-separation crisis as parents are deported without their children. The Brookings Institution estimated in April that about 205,000 children have been affected by parental immigrant detention — 71 percent of them U.S. citizens — and that more than 35,000 have been left with no parent at all. In July 2025, DHS revised the policy that required officers to reunite detained parents with their children or confirm an official caregiver before deportation, adding caveats such as "when operationally feasible." ICE arrested a record 49,000 people in July 2026, a majority with no criminal record. Children are being shuffled among overwhelmed temporary caregivers, some of whom face county investigations or homelessness; the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights has worked more than 150 separation cases with a growing waitlist, and the UN's International Organization for Migration reunified only 12 children this spring.