The number of children being held in detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined dramatically in recent weeks, as the Trump administration scaled back some of its most aggressive immigration enforcement tactics.
Earlier this year, after a surge of arrests in Minnesota and elsewhere, hundreds of children were being held with their parents at a federal detention center in Dilley, Texas, where families described poor medical care, inadequate food and water and little education for children.
Now, that number has dwindled. While some families were deported, others have been released back into the country. As of this week, 53 children and 49 parents were being held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the federal government’s only detention center for families, according to internal government figures reviewed by The New York Times.
There were about 500 children and 450 parents at the facility in mid-January, according to RAICES, a nonprofit that provides legal services to families inside Dilley.
The number of detained families is at one of its lowest points since the Trump administration reintroduced the practice of detaining families last year. (Another 225 single adult women are being held elsewhere at the facility, down from more than 400 in January.)
The numbers have dropped as the Trump administration shifted to a more targeted approach to immigration enforcement in recent weeks, with fewer arrests in February. The intense crackdown in Minnesota resulted in the deaths of two American citizens, led to thousands of arrests and triggered political blowback, with polls suggesting that a majority of Americans believed ICE’s tactics had gone too far.
A U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity attributed the decline to several factors, including new deportations from Dilley, the Border Patrol sending fewer families to Dilley who had recently crossed into the United States and a court requirement to release children from custody after a certain period of time.
Under a 1997 legal settlement agreement, children held in federal detention are supposed to be transferred out within three weeks, though some children at Dilley had been held far longer. The Trump administration is fighting in court to end the settlement, arguing that it encourages families to enter the country unlawfully.
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said, “ICE makes custody determinations daily, on a case-by-case basis in accordance with U.S. law, and various factors to ensure their presence for immigration proceedings or removal from the United States.”
Leecia Welch, a lawyer who visits Dilley and reports to a federal judge overseeing the legal settlement, said that she believed that a public outcry over conditions at the center, along with the ongoing legal monitoring, may have led immigration officials to change tactics.
Still, immigration lawyers and advocates cautioned that the numbers could quickly surge once again, and even families who were released could be redetained and sent back to Dilley.
“For now, it’s a good thing but I don’t see any indication they plan to end the detention of families,” said Michelle Brané, executive director of Together and Free, a nonprofit that works with families affected by immigration enforcement.
It is unclear what happened to the hundreds of children who are no longer in custody. Some have returned to their home countries with their parents. The Trump administration has urged families to “take control of their departure” and accept $2,600 and a flight home to leave the country.
Other were released back to their American lives, with their immigration cases still pending.
“It is totally, totally pointless,” said Elora Mukherjee, a professor at Columbia Law School who runs the school’s immigration clinic and has represented families detained at Dilley.
“Dilley wrecks them physically and emotionally,” she said. Yet in many cases, when they are released, “they are back to where they started.
Vilma Bautista and her 9-year-old son, Kenek, were released from Dilley in early March after 85 days. Agents had stopped them on their way to fill a prescription at a pharmacy near their home in Metairie, La.
During their time at Dilley, the boy, who has severe autism, missed therapy and his regular routine, growing increasingly agitated and anxious.
“He hit himself, screamed and called for his aunts in Louisiana,” said Ms. Bautista, 43, who came to the United States from Honduras with her child in 2021.
The family has a pending asylum case on appeal, and Columbia’s immigration clinic filed a request with ICE for their release, citing Kenek’s disability. The boy is delighted to be home and back at his school. But because of his prolonged absence, he may have to repeat fourth grade, said Ms. Bautista.
In Columbia Heights, Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis, six students from the public school district were taken to Dilley, along with their parents, during Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota this year.
One, a 17-year-old from Ecuador, voluntarily went back to her home country, along with her mother, according to the school district. Five others have returned to school.
Among them is Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old boy in a Spider-Man backpack whose arrest with his father made national headlines. The Trump administration is trying to deport the family, and the family is appealing.
He and other students at his elementary school who were detained at Dilley are now in weekly group counseling with other students who have been affected by immigration enforcement, said Nicole Herje, a social worker at the school.
After returning from Dilley, she said, some of the students were afraid to play on the playground at recess. “They expressed fear of ICE going outside,” she said. Their parents lost jobs while at Dilley and are also facing financial stress at home. At least one family came back to find their home being rented to someone else.
She said the school has worked hard to create a sense of normalcy for the students who have returned, and is trying to help them catch up academically.
One 13-year-old, Edison, will soon be heading back to school in Chicago, after being detained at Dilley for about three months, according to his father, Ricardo, who spoke on condition that he and his family be identified only by their first names.
Edison and his mother, Cleidy, who are from Guatemala, were awakened by officers at Dilley early Wednesday and told to get ready to leave for the airport. They were not told why they were being released.
Cleidy was fitted with an ankle monitor that allows immigration authorities to track her, and the principal of the school that Edison attends helped them buy airline tickets back to Chicago, Ricardo said.
The family was overjoyed when they were reunited, he said, but they must report in a few weeks to the same ICE office where their previous check-in led to their detention at Dilley.
Allison McCann contributed reporting
Sarah Mervosh covers education for The Times, focusing on K-12 schools.
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