Contact: Tom Salyers, Director of Communications, [email protected]
Washington, DC, March 11, 2025 – Members of the Children Thrive Action Network (CTAN) are deeply concerned by reports that the Trump Administration is actively making plans to once again jail families with children in ICE detention facilities. This action is yet another misguided and cruel effort to punish children and families seeking asylum while doing nothing to deter migration. The shameful practice was ended under the Biden Administration following the concerns raised by health experts over the inadequate conditions and medical care available in facilities, along with consistent documentation of the grave physical and mental health harms of detention on children and families. Even a Department of Homeland Security Advisory Committee found that “detention is never in the best interests of children.”
In response, several CTAN members condemned the action:
“Jailing children, including babies, is unconscionable. The traumatizing experience of imprisonment could negatively impact a child’s life-long ability to thrive emotionally and psychologically. Moreover, immigrant parents and their children have been horribly neglected and abused at these same facilities in the past, and there are no accountability structures in place to prevent that from continuing,” said Trudy Taylor Smith, Senior Administrator of Policy and Advocacy at Children’s Defense Fund Texas. “Escalating ICE raids have already harmed Texas children by deterring fearful immigrant families from sending their children to school or seeking out medical care when they need it. Instead of spending taxpayer money to put children and their parents behind bars in inhumane conditions, our state and federal leaders should focus on protecting children and families by funding access to the health care, nutrition assistance, and other resources they need to thrive.”
“Locking up families has proven time and again to be dangerous for their health, safety, and well-being,” said Wendy Cervantes, Director of Immigration and Immigrant Families at the Center for Law and Social Policy. “I have witnessed firsthand the cruelty of family detention and will never forget the cries from young children and mothers shouting for help or the sight of a detention center cafeteria lined with high chairs. The practice of family detention is a stain on our nation’s history that should never be repeated, and we urge the administration to reverse course.”
“We are deeply frustrated to find ourselves facing a likely revival of dangerous detention settings for children,” said Bruce Lesley, President of First Focus On Children. “If President Trump augments his proposed asylum ban with jail time for children and families, we fear for the health and well-being of all children seeking safety in our midst, and for the American values that have made this country a welcoming place for those fleeing violence.”
“There is no safe way to detain families and no legitimate justification for this inhumane practice,” said Neha Desai, Managing Director of Children’s Human Rights & Dignity at the National Center for Youth Law. “Detaining children and families in ICE facilities is an entirely discretionary practice that harms children’s health and well-being, undermines the parent-child relationship, obstructs children and families from accessing legal counsel, and runs contrary to basic principles regarding the protection of children.”
“There is no safe or humane way to incarcerate children and families,” said Zain Lakhani, Director of Migrant Rights and Justice at the Women’s Refugee Commission. “The Women’s Refugee Commission visited family detention centers in prior administrations and saw firsthand the trauma, abuse, and psychological harm to children held in jail-like conditions, and the pain of parents who could not protect their children from harm. Family detention serves no purpose: it does not protect public safety, does not promote our national values, and does nothing to further our national interests. We must act now to prevent the irreparable harm this will cause to children and families.”
“Family detention is a stain on the collective American conscience and will never make our country or communities great,” said Abena Hutchful, a policy attorney for The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. “It only serves to generate profit for private prison corporations. We demand a permanent end to this horrific and shameful practice. We condemn attempts to forcibly separate families with the threat of detention and deportation.”
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CTAN is a national network of children’s advocacy organizations and service providers committed to protecting and defending children in immigrant families, guided by policy principles to ensure that immigration policies safeguard children’s health, safety, and well-being. Since 2019, CTAN has urged federal and state officials to advance the “best interest of the child” in all policies and to reject policies that put children in harm’s way and undermine their safety.
