U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained more than 650 children in California under President Donald Trump\u2019s second term, an EdSource analysis of federal data has found. Most arrests happened in California communities, rather than at the border, and involved minors who resided and attended school in the state.<\/p>\n
The number of children detained in the state\u2019s interior rose 90% during the first year of Trump\u2019s second term compared to the prior year under the Biden administration, our analysis shows. More than 100 of the children detained under Trump were age 5 or under.<\/p>\n
The rise in child detainments in the state\u2019s interior began soon after Trump took office in January 2025. Trump won office on a promise to carry out mass deportations, vowing to deport<\/a> \u201cillegal immigrant killers, rapists, and drug dealers from our streets and [send] them back where they belong.\u201d<\/p>\n Starting immediately and escalating over the summer of 2025, ICE agents have conducted large-scale operations in neighborhoods with large immigrant populations. Some children have been detained while accompanying parents to routine ICE check-ins. The practices reflect an escalation in enforcement activity that state education officials say has kept some students from attending school<\/a>.<\/p>\n Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. <\/p>\n The children detained so far include a 17-year-old honors student<\/a> from Los Angeles County who was detained in June 2025 and deported to Guatemala; a 9-year-old boy from Torrance<\/a> who, along with his father, was detained at an immigration hearing that same month and deported to Honduras; and a 6-year-old deaf student<\/a> who, in March, was detained without his hearing aids and deported to Colombia along with his mother and younger brother.<\/p>\n Medical professionals and advocates contend that no period of time in detention is safe for children. In 2016, a Department of Homeland Security Advisory Committee recommended discontinuing the use of family detention<\/a> \u2014 the practice of detaining children with their parents as they await the outcome of their case \u2014 writing \u201cdetention is never in the best interest of children.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe kids that are in detention in these facilities, they\u2019re losing their childhoods every single day that they\u2019re in there,\u201d said Wendy Cervantes, who oversees research and advocacy of immigrant families at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Law and Social Policy.<\/p>\n A spokesperson from the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to EdSource that this data is \u201cbeing cherry-picked\u201d to \u201cpeddle a false narrative.\u201d ICE, the spokesperson said, is \u201cnot targeting children.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cICE does not separate families,\u201d the unidentified DHS spokesperson said. \u201cParents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates.\u201d<\/p>\n What the data shows<\/p>\n EdSource analyzed federal detainment data obtained by the Deportation Data Project at UC Berkeley and UCLA, capturing federal detainments between October 2022 and March 2026. The analysis found:<\/p>\n There were 666 Californian children detained during the Trump administration. Of those, 408 children \u2014 or 61% \u2014 were deported. Under the Biden administration, 8% were ultimately deported.\u00a0Nationally, children have been held longer in detention under Trump than under Biden. The median length of detention jumped from one day under Biden to eight days under Trump. This does not include 335 children who had not yet been released from detention as of March 11, the last day for which data was available.Nationally, the average number of children in detention jumped nearly 10-fold under Trump, due in part to these longer detention stays. Under the last year of the Biden administration, there were, on average, 23 children held in detention each day. During Trump\u2019s first year of his second term, that figure rose to 219.<\/p>\n The Trump administration is going after \u201cthe worst of the worst,\u201d including pedophiles and rapists, a DHS spokesperson said.<\/p>\n \u201cMany of the individuals that are counted as \u2018non-criminals\u2019 are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters and more; they just don\u2019t have a rap sheet in the U.S.,\u201d the DHS spokesperson said. \u201cFurther, every single one of these individuals committed a crime when they came into this country illegally.\u201d<\/p>\n According to EdSource\u2019s analysis of ICE\u2019s data, none of the 666 detained children in California under Trump had any felonies or previous convictions listed. Twelve minors were listed as having pending criminal charges, including three girls between ages 6 and 9. The nature of those pending charges is not disclosed. The ICE data does not include information about any connected family members or their cases.<\/p>\n During his second term, Trump reopened family detention facilities, including the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley and the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center in Texas. In California, 250 detained children were ultimately sent to these family facilities.<\/p>\n A 12-year-old from Los Angeles, identified by the initials G.S., gave a declaration in federal court<\/a> describing their experience living inside the South Texas Family Residential Center during a 64-day detainment with their parents and younger sister.<\/p>\n The child said ICE agents detained the family during a routine ICE check-in in Los Angeles. The family lost their apartment and belongings, according to the May 22 declaration. The status of the child and their family is unclear.<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes me feel hopeless to be here for so long, because now it\u2019ll take me and my whole family a long time to get back to normal because of how much money and education we have lost,\u201d the child said in their declaration. \u201cIf I could change one thing here, it would be to shut down the whole facility.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump vs. Biden<\/p>\n One major difference between the Trump and Biden presidencies has been the number of children who arrived at the border. Of the 5,676 children detained in California between October 2022 and when Trump started his second term, 94% were apprehended at the border.<\/p>\n Biden prioritized placing some of the unaccompanied minors who arrived at the border with sponsors, Cervantes said, and ended the practice of family detention that resumed under Trump. Cervantes said the Biden administration largely followed the Flores Settlement Agreement<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 1997 agreement provided rights for immigrant children in U.S. custody and prohibited most detentions from lasting more than 20 days. The declaration from the detained Los Angeles minor is one of several included from children and parents in a lawsuit claiming their rights under the Flores agreement have been violated.<\/p>\n Attorneys representing the Trump administration in this case argued in court<\/a> in June 2025 that conditions at detention centers for children have \u201cdrastically improved\u201d since the original agreement. Referencing the high number of immigrants at the border, the administration said the Flores Settlement Agreement \u201chamstrung the government in addressing this catastrophic illegal migration.\u201d<\/p>\n Apprehension in California<\/p>\n During the first year of Trump\u2019s second term, adults were detained in California\u2019s interior at more than four times the rate they were held during the last year of Biden\u2019s administration, while the rate of child detainments rose by 90%.<\/p>\n California has passed laws and issued guidance with the aim of shielding schools from federal immigration enforcement. For instance, under California law, school officials cannot allow immigration officials on campus without a judicial warrant<\/a>.<\/p>\n In some California communities<\/a>, parents, teachers and neighbors have formed rapid-response networks to report sightings of ICE agents for students and their families to avoid while commuting to and from school.<\/p>\n The sites of some immigration enforcement operations, such as job sites, may be more likely to target adults than children. However, Cervantes notes that some teens working at restaurants or as lifeguards at pools have been apprehended in ICE raids while they\u2019re on the job. She also disputes the Trump administration\u2019s claim that children have not been targets of immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n Children may not be detained at the same rates that adults are, but medical experts warn that any time spent in detention is too long for their well-being.<\/p>\n