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Trump administration data sharing on immigrant child sponsors results in 12,000 detentions
More than 12,000 people, including sponsors and family members of unaccompanied migrant children, were detained in the US based on data shared by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The US carried out large-scale detention operations targeting sponsors and families of unaccompanied migrant children. According to internal government data obtained by Reuters, since January 2025 the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) sent over 460,000 'signals' about children, sponsors, and household members to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Based on this information, more than 12,000 people were detained.
ORR was established in 1980 to provide settlement for those fleeing war and persecution. Starting in the early 2000s, it also became responsible for the care of children arriving alone at the US-Mexico border. A 2008 law mandated that these children be released as quickly as possible, in the least restrictive setting, regardless of their sponsors' immigration status.
Policy change and consequences
However, the Trump administration reversed this policy. Former ORR Deputy Director Jen Smayers stated that safeguards against data sharing were 'completely removed' and that
a program designed to protect children had been turned into a tool to increase deportation numbers.
ORR, for its part, denied any role in the detention of children and referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS explained that during Trump's second term, ORR provided potential leads to ICE's Homeland Security Investigations unit in order to track children released to 'unverified sponsors.'
The toll on families
Aurora, 24, entered the US illegally two years ago in search of work and safety. She left her 6-year-old daughter with relatives in Mexico. Last August, a relative brought the girl to the border and handed her over to authorities. The little girl spent six months in a shelter for migrant children. Aurora secured her daughter's release by submitting extensive documentation, including a DNA test. They were reunited at the end of March. But a few days later, ICE agents came to her home, detained them, and sent them to a family detention center in Texas.
They were released three weeks later, but Aurora was fitted with an ankle monitor and was required to report regularly to authorities. While they were in detention, their Mississippi landlord evicted them and threw away their belongings. Now they are staying with an acquaintance in California. Aurora fears deportation. Her daughter wakes up crying at night, still thinking she is in detention.
The story of Marleni and her son Victor is filled with similar pain. Marleni fled violence in Guatemala in 2023, entering the US illegally with her younger son. She left her older son Victor with relatives. After his uncle was killed, Victor headed north and surrendered at the border. He spent four months in ORR custody and was released one day before his 18th birthday. The family reunited and celebrated. But two months later, ICE agents detained Marleni and her partner at gunpoint as they were getting into a car to go to work. DHS claimed the operation was part of a criminal investigation but provided no details.
Now Victor has to care for his 6-year-old brother. He faces deportation after missing a court date following his mother's arrest.
I have to keep going,he said.
Alexa Sendukas, senior attorney at the Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project, said,
An increasing number of sponsors and other family members are being detained with them.
The Trump administration's tightened sponsor vetting extended the detention period for unaccompanied children from an average of 30 days in fiscal year 2024 to 194 days in June 2026.
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