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In the first years after birth, the human brain develops at a remarkable pace. Every second, more than a  connections spring into being, shaping .

Since the Trump administration entered the White House last year, at least 500 babies and toddlers have spent some of that pivotal time in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE has dramatically increased detentions of children aged 3 and under, holding 25 of them in custody on an average day between January 2025 and March of this year, according to a new analysis by The Marshall Project and MS NOW of records obtained by the , a group of academics and lawyers who collect and share federal immigration data. That number is 10 times higher than it was in the previous 12 months under former President Joe Biden. Back then, on an average day, fewer than three babies and toddlers were held at facilities across the country.

Parents in ICE detention have complained of substandard conditions that frequently left their young children sick, isolated and regressing in their physical and intellectual development.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment about the dramatic increase in the number of young children in detention; but, in an emailed statement, an agency spokesperson said families with children receive appropriate food, water and medical care. In a separate statement, CoreCivic 鈥撯�� the private company that operates the primary ICE facility used to detain families 鈥撯�� echoed that its facilities were safe for infants and toddlers.

Marsha Griffin, a pediatrics professor and co-founder of the executive committee of the , called the period of infancy and toddlerhood 鈥減robably the most harmful time of their lives to have them in detention.鈥�

鈥淥ur immigration system is breaking children,鈥� she said.

In March, Joani, her husband, and their 2-year-old son, Kaleth, showed up to a check-in appointment with immigration officials in California. Since the family immigrated and sought asylum in 2024, they had never missed a required appointment with immigration officials, according to the family鈥檚 lawyer. Nevertheless, that day, ICE took them all into custody.

As the whole family cried, Kaleth鈥檚 father was handcuffed and driven away to an adult detention facility in California. Joani and her toddler were taken to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, the primary U.S. immigration facility that holds families with children.

At the family鈥檚 request, we are identifying Kaleth and Joani by their first names only.

Separated from his father, Kaleth was despondent in the Dilley facility, Joani said in an interview. He repeatedly scooted a tiny table over to a phone that was mounted on the wall, so he could climb up high enough to try to use it. Each time, Joani moved the table away so he wouldn鈥檛 fall. Even if he could have reached the phone, contacting his father in another detention center would have been impossible.

Kaleth stopped eating for 12 days. Joani said facility doctors attributed it to depression. When Joani tried to force him to eat, Kaleth vomited. He eventually stopped having bowel movements. Joani watched her son鈥檚 face grow gaunt, and his eyes sink into their sockets.

Lori Goodman, the CEO of , a nonprofit group that supports families with young children in California and has worked with Kaleth鈥檚 family, said children his age may express trauma physically, since they have fewer verbal skills.

鈥淗e was so distressed that it manifested in his body in not being able to eat or digest,鈥� said Goodman. 鈥淭he longer a child is in that setting, the more the long-term damage.鈥�

The most recent data available shows many very young children have spent prolonged periods of time in custody. Between Trump鈥檚 second inauguration and March of this year, ICE held at least 175 babies and toddlers for longer than a court-mandated time limit of 20 days. A federal judge interpreted 20 days to be the limit for detaining children in a 2015 opinion on the  which governs the treatment of children in immigration detention.

During the last year of the Biden administration, no children aged 3 or younger were held beyond the settlement鈥檚 20-day limit. Biden had ended the practice of family detention in 2021, and the Dilley facility, which had mostly housed families, eventually closed. Trump restarted the practice and reopened Dilley shortly after retaking office.

In a May  submitted by ICE as required by the Flores settlement, the agency said it 鈥渨orks to assess cases and discharge minors from custody as promptly as possible.鈥�

Alsu and Azat fled Russia last year, fearing that their opposition to the war in Ukraine would land them in prison and their 1-year-old, Amir, in an orphanage.

The family had braced themselves to spend a few weeks in immigration confinement upon arriving in the United States after crossing the southern border without visas, and presented themselves to authorities at a legal port of entry. But, as their incarceration stretched on, first in California and then at Dilley, they watched their once-lively son withdraw and begin hitting himself in the face.

鈥淲e came here to escape prison. We wanted to be free,鈥� Azat said through a translator. 鈥淏ut once we arrived in America, we spent four months in detention.鈥�

Dilley didn鈥檛 have many toys for toddlers, Amir鈥檚 parents said, and some desperate children resorted to playing with rocks. Even though Alsu and Azat knew it was important to read with him, they couldn鈥檛 find books in their native language of Russian. Amir鈥檚 speech development slowed. Eventually, he stopped saying anything other than two words: 鈥渕om鈥� and 鈥渄ad.鈥�

Griffin, the pediatrics professor, said it鈥檚 imperative for parents to talk to their children to help them develop vocabulary. But the fear and stress of incarceration can cause both parents and children to become quiet.

鈥淭hey don鈥檛 want to talk, and no one鈥檚 talking to them, not in a normal way,鈥� said Griffin. She noted that the experience can also damage the parent-child bond, as a child witnesses their parent鈥檚 loss of control.

Rahil Briggs, a psychologist at the early-childhood advocacy organization , said these types of developmental setbacks can have a domino effect.

“If we miss this foundational time in early childhood when we see all these wonderful things going on in brain development with memory and learning and executive functioning, then it’s just harder than ever to catch up,鈥� Briggs said. 鈥滻 can鈥檛 learn my ABCs because I鈥檝e got to make sure that I鈥檓 safe in this scary situation. And because I haven鈥檛 learned my ABCs, now I’m not sure how to do this, and I’m not reading.鈥�

Keeping Amir properly fed was another challenge.

According to Amir鈥檚 mother, Alsu, employees at Dilley forced her to wean him off formula, claiming he was too old. The solid food options, Alsu insisted, were not appropriate for a 1-year-old. She described being so desperate to get Amir to eat, that she sucked a spicy pasta sauce off noodles so she could feed them to her son. She and Azat resorted to hiding cereal from the dining hall at breakfast in their socks and hoods for later, so their child wouldn鈥檛 go to sleep hungry.

鈥淓very single day, I would break down, hysterical, because my child had gone without proper food,鈥� said Alsu.

After they argued with staff members to get Amir better food, Azat alleges that employees in CoreCivic uniforms woke him up in the middle of the night, threatening to send the parents to separate immigrant confinement centers and Amir to foster care if they didn鈥檛 stop complaining.

鈥淎s a husband, as a father, I can see the sufferings of my child, I can see how much my wife suffers,鈥� Azat said. 鈥淚t was horrific for me, because I could do nothing to help them.鈥�

Both Amir鈥檚 and Kaleth鈥檚 parents said their children suffered fevers and stomach problems during their incarceration at Dilley and that they struggled to get them adequate treatment. Many other parents have reported similar challenges accessing care inside facilities, including waiting for hours in line to get basic, over-the-counter medication.

Elora Mukherjee, a Columbia Law School professor who has represented more than 80 children and parents incarcerated at Dilley over the past year, said that nearly all of her clients in recent months complained about poor medical care.

鈥淜ids at this age also get sick more easily because their immune systems haven’t developed,鈥� Mukherjee said. 鈥淗aving such young children in a prison setting with hundreds of other kids and parents, it just makes them repeatedly, constantly sick. So they have fevers, they’re coughing, they’re vomiting, they have diarrhea. They are just miserable.鈥�

Amalia and her parents were incarcerated at Dilley when the 1-year-old developed a fever and grew lethargic. Speaking through a translator, her parents said they returned to Dilley鈥檚 medical clinic again and again, but were only given Tylenol for her and warned not to complain. When Amalia鈥檚 mother, Kheilin Valero Marcano, went back to the clinic after her daughter lost consciousness, she recalled asking clinic employees, 鈥淗ow long are you going to leave her like this? Are you going to let her die?鈥�

According to the family, Amalia eventually spent more than a week in an outside hospital, after her oxygen levels dropped to dangerously low levels. There she was diagnosed with COVID-19, an ear infection, pneumonia, bronchitis and RSV, a common but potentially serious childhood illness that affects the lungs.

According to , facilities should transfer sick people to an outside hospital if they cannot provide adequate care onsite.

Leecia Welch, a lawyer with Children鈥檚 Rights who has visited Dilley more than 10 times, said that babies and toddlers, many too young to receive certain vaccinations, had some of the most troubling medical cases she鈥檇 seen, calling the situation 鈥渢he most gut-wrenching.鈥�

Welch recalled mothers in detention describing how stress and lack of nutritious food made breastfeeding difficult. Marcano said Amalia would cry throughout the night, because she鈥檇 tried to nurse and nothing would come out.

Other parents, whose babies drank formula, have stated in court documents that the facility did not provide enough bottled water to hydrate powdered formula, and purchasing additional water at the commissary was, for many, prohibitively expensive. Tap water at the facility, families said, smelled foul and made children sick.

Parents also described difficulties getting children to sleep. The lights in the Dilley facility were kept on all night, and toys that can help kids sleep are prohibited in living areas.

鈥淭hey can’t go to sleep with a stuffed animal,鈥� said Welch 鈥淭hey can’t go to sleep with a security blanket, that’s just not allowed.鈥�

Representatives for ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, did not answer specific questions about the sorts of conditions experienced by Kaleth, Amir, or Amalia. In a past , Homeland Security disputed Amalia鈥檚 family鈥檚 claims and insisted she 鈥渋mmediately received proper medical care.鈥�

Brian Todd, a CoreCivic spokesman, responded in an email that the Dilley facility provides toddlers and babies necessary supplies, including formula, healthy food and clean drinking water.

An ICE spokesperson made similar claims in an emailed statement and noted that the agency 鈥渋s working rapidly and overtime to remove these aliens from detention centers to their final destination 鈥� home.鈥� In a May court filing, an ICE report stated that people are provided with an eye mask when they arrive at Dilley and, following complaints, the facility switched to lower-intensity lighting, though they remain on all night for security purposes. Agency officials also stated in the filings that water quality is monitored, babies under the age of 1 receive bottled water to make formula, and children have access to outdoor play structures, toys, multilingual books, and age-appropriate meals and snacks.

A  lawyers for detained children called ICE鈥檚 claims 鈥渇anciful.鈥�

ICE released Kaleth and his mother in April, two weeks after their incarceration, and they were later reunited with Kaleth鈥檚 father. According to Mukherjee, Kaleth had not eaten solid food the entire time. In the car from the airport, he devoured four packets of applesauce.

Kaleth has since recovered remarkably, said Goodman, the LEAP CEO 鈥� a testament to the family鈥檚 resilience and the strength of their parental bonds. She鈥檚 seen how Kaleth鈥檚 mother looks into his eyes, and comforts him when he is distressed.

鈥淭hat is so powerful at counteracting the abuse that our government is perpetrating,鈥� Goodman said.

Amalia and her family  after spending two months in Dilley.

Amir and his parents were also released, under supervision, in January. The toddler, now 2 years old, is laughing and speaking more, and he has stopped hitting himself. His parents say he seems closer to the happy child he was before ICE imprisoned him.

Even so, it鈥檚 too early to tell what the long-term effects of child incarceration will be on the hundreds of babies and toddlers who have gone through ICE detention since Trump re-entered the White House.

鈥淭he long-term damage caused by prolonged toxic stress 鈥� by essentially abusing these children 鈥� we鈥檙e going to see those effects. They鈥檙e going to impact every child who was there for many, many years to come,” Goodman said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 incalculable the amount of damage that is being done.鈥�

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