Trump Administration Revives Controversial Migrant Family Detention Practice

The Trump administration is once again employing the controversial practice of detaining migrant families, including children, as part of a broader immigration crackdown that the president has promised would become the most extensive deportation effort in United States history.

According to an internal document obtained by CBS News, ICE started detaining the first migrant families with children at a specialized facility in Texas. The detained group reportedly includes three minor children. Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin affirmed that the individuals detained already have outstanding deportation orders. She added the administration is converting two detention centers in Texas—located in Karnes City and Dilley—to accommodate families who entered the U.S. illegally.

"We aren't going to ignore the rule of law," McLaughlin emphasized in her remarks. These specific detention facilities were previously utilized by the Biden administration to detain adult migrants, but had discontinued the practice of holding families together in long-term immigration custody.

Family detention has previously drawn sharp criticism from advocates and child-welfare experts, who argue that detention is harmful to children and negatively impacts their psychological health. A 2016 Department of Homeland Security report had even recommended a phase-out of family immigration detention entirely.

Neha Desai, an attorney at the National Center of Youth Law, strongly condemned the practice, stating, "There is no safe way to detain families and no legitimate justification for this inhumane practice." Additionally, legal challenges associated with detaining families have posed difficulties for the U.S. government. A notable 2015 federal court ruling restricted detaining migrant children longer than 20 days, tying the hands of ICE and complicating long-term detentions.

This renewed approach underscores the Trump administration's intensified efforts to expand ICE’s capacity and enforce immigration laws through increased arrests, detentions, and deportations within the U.S. However, these endeavors have faced operational hurdles. Despite stricter enforcement and border security measures that reduced illegal crossings to a 25-year low, facilities for holding detained migrants have reached beyond maximum capacity. Recent internal reports cite ICE detention facilities as operating at 120% capacity, housing over 46,000 detainees despite having an official bed count of just 38,000.