ICE Is Jailing Babies. One 2-Year-Old Stopped Eating for 12 Days

United States is detaining babies and toddlers in immigration custody at roughly ten times the rate it did under the Biden administration. According to an investigation by The Marshall Project and MS NOW, based on ICE’s own detention records, an average of 25 children age three and under are held on any given day, and at least 500 babies and toddlers have been detained since the start of President Trump’s second term. More than 175 were held longer than the 20-day limit a federal judge set for detaining children; under Biden’s final year, that number was zero. Across all ages, ICE has detained more than 6,200 children this term.The report documents the conditions through specific cases: a 2-year-old, separated from his detained father, who stopped eating for 12 days; a 1-year-old who began hitting himself and stopped speaking; and a 1-year-old girl given only Tylenol before being hospitalized for a week with COVID, pneumonia, bronchitis, and RSV. Pediatric experts note that infancy and toddlerhood are when detention causes the most lasting developmental harm.In response, the Department of Homeland Security said ICE “is not targeting children” and questioned the media’s coverage of immigration under the prior administration, rather than addressing the documented conditions.Border crossings have fallen sharply, undercutting the security rationale for the policy.Reporting by The Marshall Project and MS NOW.Source:https://www.ms.now/news/trump-ice-detention-dilley-kids-immigration https://www.themarshallproject.org/2026/06/09/babies-and-toddlers-in-ice-detention Get full access to The Rogue Voice aka Linsay Rousseau at linsayrousseau.substack.com/subscribe