Okay, But Why is ICE Detaining Children?

Donald Trump promised to be “tough” on immigration on the campaign trail, vowing to “launch the largest deportation program of criminals in American history.”

“Criminals,” he said. So why is ICE detaining children? And why do half of the adults held in ICE detention facilities have no criminal record?

In New York, a mom and her three kids—including a third grader—were arrested by ICE and shipped off to a facility in Texas. In Louisiana, ICE deported a four-year-old with cancer to Honduras, despite the child being a US citizen. Across America, families live in fear of separation, even those who are following the legal pathways and completing all of their required paperwork and check-ins.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, the conditions in ICE detention facilities is atrocious: crowded cells, freezing concrete floors, water from the toilet, and constant dehumanizing treatment from guards. All of this for people with no criminal record and, again, actual children. Is this really the America we want?

This Okay, But Why is upsetting, but we can’t turn away. Trump’s ICE quotas and for-profit prison companies are creating a hell on earth for some of our most vulnerable people and we have to speak out.

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Transcript

Okay, But Why is ICE Detaining Children?

NEWS CLIP: “Three kids who aren’t in these hallways Monday, taken away early last Thursday morning from a dairy farm in the town of Houndsfield. Gaffney calls it distressing. ‘This isn’t about politics for us. This is about kids.’”

Narration: In March, ICE agents – that stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement – were looking for a man from South Africa who was facing federal charges. After arresting him, they continued to knock on doors in the area – without a warrant – and ended up detaining seven other immigrants, including a mom and her three kids. The family was trying to navigate the immigration system in the right way, attending their immigration hearings, but that didn’t matter. The mom and her kids, including a third-grader, were arrested and shipped off to the Karnes County Detention Facility in Texas, nearly 1,800 miles away.

Trump did promise to crack down on immigration during his presidential campaign, but he claimed he was talking about criminals.

CLIP from Trump: “On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in American history.”

Narration: So… why are they arresting children? And why do half of the adults held in ICE detention centers have no criminal record?

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was started in 2003 by President George W. Bush. This isn’t an agency with a long and storied history in this country. It’s barely over 20 years old. It’s currently run by a man named Todd Lyons, but he’s just an acting director appointed by the Trump administration; ICE hasn’t had a director who’s been confirmed by the Senate since Obama left office in 2017. It employs more than 20,000 people and in 2024, its budget was 8 billion dollars.

ICE is currently holding 47,000 people in detention centers. 48 percent of them have no criminal record at all, and many more only have minor violations, like traffic tickets. And while arresting a third-grader is particularly bad, that family is only one of thousands to be blindsided by ICE.

In Kansas, a mom named Rosemery was attending a routine appointment with her local Immigration office when she was detained. Her children are US citizens, and her husband recently became a citizen as well. He petitioned for Rosemary to get a green card, and they were excited to receive a letter that said she’d been approved but needed to come down for an interview. An hour after they walked into the immigration office, their daughter Carina says she watched her dad walk back out alone.

CLIP: Carina: “People keep saying we needed to do it the right way, the legal way. Well, that’s what we were doing.”

Two officers detained Carina’s mom without any explanation. They took her out the back, put her in an unmarked white van, and drove off. Rosemery is now being held at a detention center two hours away.

CLIP: Carina: “I was so excited to share, I mean, for her to be at my graduation, for her to watch me get married. It’s so quiet now in our house and we just miss her voice.”

Or Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose story you may have already heard on the news. He  grew up in El Salvador and then immigrated to the United States at the age of 16 to escape gang threats. He lived in Maryland with his wife and kids, who are all American citizens, and he was legally in this country, completing all of his annual check-ins with ICE.

On March 12, he picked up his son from his grandma’s house after work and on the way home, his car was stopped by ICE. He was arrested and his wife Jennifer was told she had ten minutes to pick up their son before he was turned over to child protective services. Then, he wasn’t just deported - he was sent to a maximum security prison in El Salvador. He hadn’t committed any crimes, either in The United States or El Salvador. He was accused of being a member of the gang MS-13, but the only evidence is the word of an informant, who said he was active with the gang in New York… where Kilmar has never lived. And how was he supposed to prove his innocence when they didn’t give him a trial?

Even the Supreme Court ordered him to be released and sent home, but so far the Trump administration has refused. Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador to visit Kilmar, so we know he’s still alive, but it’s not clear what’s going to happen to him next. Here’s what Senator Van Hollen said on a podcast last month.

CLIP: “This goes to the heart of protecting people’s rights and what bullies do and what authoritarian leaders do and what Donald Trump is doing is, by beginning by picking on the most vulnerable and refusing to bring his case in the courts, and when the courts rule, ignoring them. So this is a very important moment to protect everyone’s constitutional rights. It’s not about one person, it’s about all of us.”

Narration: We could go on and on about the thousands of people being detained, deported, and imprisoned without a trial or any criminal record. Including other children, like three kids from Louisiana who are US citizens, one of whom is a four-year-old with cancer. The family was deported to Honduras in April before they could consult with a doctor or even bring his medication.

Or Jasmine, a Canadian woman who was at an immigration office to update her work visa, which had been approved months before, when she was suddenly taken to an ICE detention center. She was held in a cell with a concrete floor along with dozens of other women.

CLIP from Jasmine: “Everything in there is made to break you into a million pieces. I had no idea this existed for the non-criminals. They would just do the weirdest things, like we’d get placed into these cells that were freezing cold, I’m talking like we’d be on the ground, huddling, shivering, I’m like, ‘We’re gonna get hypothermia in here.’ No blankets, nothing. They would wake you up in the middle of the night. The food wasn’t even food, I wouldn’t even feed it to a dog. The water was tap water from the toilet. They’d give you one styrofoam cup and plastic spoon you’d have to reuse after every meal. 

If you go to jail, you’re sentenced and you know when you’re getting out. In here, you have no idea. These women haven’t seen their husbands, haven’t seen their children, they’re losing their jobs. It’s just… honestly, I could not believe that this is happening.

This isn’t just my story. This is thousands and thousands of women who are placed in these situations without my privilege. And I tell everyone, I had resources, I had a Canadian passport, I had lawyers, I had politicians, I had the media, and it still took me two weeks to get out of there. Can you even imagine what these other women are going through?”

Narrator: Eventually Jasmine was released. And after Senator Van Hollen’s visit, Kilmar Garcia was moved to a lower-security prison. The story from the beginning of this episode, about the mom and her kids, has a happy ending too: after protests by their neighbors, teachers, and even the governor of New York, the family has been released from ICE detention and is back home where they belong. But not every family can rise to the top of the news cycle. People shouldn’t need to depend on protests or their Senator for justice to prevail - the system should be just on its own.

So again, we ask the question - why? Why is ICE detaining people who aren’t criminals, who are following the legal pathways, and in some cases are actual children? And why are they treating people so inhumanely? Well, there are two answers: money, and messaging.

Immigration was one of Trump’s top issues during his presidential campaign. He promised to be “tough” on immigration and he’s desperate to deliver. In February, he was reportedly angry that more people weren’t being deported and told senior managers that ICE should be arresting at least 1200 people per day. Are those quotas the reason that so many people are being mistakenly targeted?

And then there’s the money. Companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group receive government funding based on the number of people they detain, which is why they lobby for stricter immigration policies. And it’s big business - in 2024, GEO Group made more than 763 million dollars from ICE contracts. The more prisoners they detain, the more money they make. So why would they want to release people quickly? Why would they treat them humanely when it’s cheaper to put 30 women in a shared cell with a concrete floor? 

Is this the America we want? Not according to recent polls. Support for Trump’s immigration policies is falling, even amongst MAGA voters. Latino voters are especially concerned, with a recent poll showing that 63% believe that Trump has gone too far.

So what can you do? Aside from calling your representatives to let them know you don’t support this cruelty, you can volunteer or donate to local aid organizations. In San Diego, for example, a community patrol reports any evidence of ICE vans in the area so their neighbors can take precautions. In a Nashville suburb, neighbors formed a human chain to protect a man and his son from ICE. And principals and teachers across the country have been taking a stand against ICE entering their schools. There are ordinary people standing up for justice across the country - and you can be part of the movement. In many cases, you don’t have to start from scratch. Just search for organizations that support immigrants in your area.

And be sure to talk to everyone you know about this. Many Americans still believe that only dangerous criminals are being deported and imprisoned. Your friends and family should know that ICE isn’t just detaining innocent people, they’re actually going after children. And without a trial to prove our innocence or citizenship, any one of us could be next. This isn’t a partisan issue - it’s about values. The tide is already turning against Trump’s immigration policies, so let’s keep it going.

Horror stories have begun to emerge about the conditions at ICE detention centers, but understandably, most people don’t want to talk about it. Not only is it traumatic, but they don’t want to draw unwanted attention by sharing their experience.

But Jasmine, a Canadian woman, is using her privilege to speak out. She was arrested at an immigration office while trying to update her work visa.

CLIP from Jasmine: “Everything in there is made to break you into a million pieces. I had no idea this existed for the non-criminals. They would just do the weirdest things, like we’d get placed into these cells that were freezing cold, I’m talking like we’d be on the ground, huddling, shivering, I’m like, ‘We’re gonna get hypothermia in here.’ No blankets, nothing. They would wake you up in the middle of the night. The food wasn’t even food, I wouldn’t even feed it to a dog. The water was tap water from the toilet. They’d give you one styrofoam cup and plastic spoon you’d have to reuse after every meal. 

If you go to jail, you’re sentenced and you know when you’re getting out. In here, you have no idea. These women haven’t seen their husbands, haven’t seen their children, they’re losing their jobs. It’s just… honestly, I could not believe that this is happening.

This isn’t just my story. This is thousands and thousands of women who are placed in these situations without my privilege. And I tell everyone, I had resources, I had a Canadian passport, I had lawyers, I had politicians, I had the media, and it still took me two weeks to get out of there. Can you even imagine what these other women are going through?”


Sources

https://www.axios.com/2025/03/14/ice-short-2-billion-trump-immigration

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/opinion/trump-ice-deportation-quota-rcna191499?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

https://tracreports.org/immigration/quickfacts/

https://fox4kc.com/news/ice-detains-mother-at-citizenship-appointment-in-kansas-city-family-says/

https://www.gofundme.com/f/Support-Carinas-Family?attribution_id=sl%3A14ab6c79-df03-49d1-b8d7-1af8994f2825&utm_campaign=natman_sharesheet_dash&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link

https://apnews.com/article/who-is-abrego-garcia-e1b2af6528f915a1f0ec60f9a1c73cdd

https://www.vox.com/politics/410207/chris-van-hollen-el-salvador-kilmar-abrego-garcia-interview

https://x.com/TVietor08/status/1908960283902771550

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g8yj2n33yo