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How many children have been separated from their parents by ICE since 2020?
Executive Summary
The available records and recent analyses show there is no single, uncontested tally of how many children ICE separated from their parents since 2020; official family-separation reporting documents show hundreds of separations in specific post-2020 reporting windows, while investigative and advocacy reports emphasize thousands separated during 2017–2021 and large numbers still unresolved. The best-constrained, verifiable counts come from DHS/ICE Family Unit Actions reports and independent audits, which document specific, smaller waves of separations after 2020 even as legacy separations from 2017–2019 remain the larger unresolved problem [1] [2] [3].
1. Legacy of a policy that created the largest documented separations — why counts disagree
Government disclosure and academic/advocacy investigations present different baselines and definitions, which explains major discrepancies in totals. DHS and the Biden administration track separations arising from the Trump-era Zero Tolerance policy and subsequent family separations with task-force reconciliation figures; those tallies often cite roughly 3,924 to more than 4,600 total separations between 2017 and 2021, depending on whether the analysis counts only separations attributed to Zero Tolerance or all documented family separations in agency records [2] [3]. Advocates and clinics use discovery documents, emails, and case tracking to identify additional separated children and to highlight 1,360 children reported still unreunited in late 2024, which increases scrutiny of official counts and signals that definitions of “separated” and methods for identifying children diverge [4] [3].
2. What ICE’s public Family Unit Actions reports actually document after 2020
ICE and DHS published discrete Family Unit Actions reports that list separations by reason, age, and outcome for defined reporting periods; those reports show far fewer separations per year after 2020 than during 2018–2019. For example, DHS’s October 1, 2021–September 30, 2022 Family Unit Actions report documents 116 family separations affecting 142 children in that year-long window, with reasons ranging from child safety to criminal history and parent fitness [1]. These agency reports are the most direct primary-source evidence for post-2020 separations, but they cover limited periods, apply specific legal definitions, and require careful aggregation across reports to estimate multi-year totals [5].
3. Independent investigations show unresolved legacy cases and raise the floor, not the ceiling
Independent clinics, human-rights groups, and legal teams have scrutinized internal documents and filed reports showing thousands separated overall with hundreds or more still unreunited, but these studies focus primarily on the 2017–2021 window and on identifying children not yet accounted for by government reconciliation efforts. The Lowenstein Clinic and partners reported government documents indicating more than 4,600 separations between 2017 and 2021, and several 2024–2025 reports estimate 1,360 children still never reunited — figures that reflect both expanded counts of earlier separations and criticism that reunification efforts have been incomplete [4] [3]. These investigations do not provide a clear post-2020-only subtotal, but they establish that legacy separations remain the dominant unresolved category.
4. Recent patterns: continued, smaller-scale separations and new forms of family disruption
Analyses from 2023–2025 document that family separations continued after 2020, but in smaller, more targeted forms (e.g., internal detentions, wellness checks, child-safety removals) rather than the mass separations of the Zero Tolerance era. Advocacy groups describe a “Family Separation 2.0” pattern of separations occurring inside detention facilities and during enforcement actions, and task-force reporting shows over 600 reunifications alongside nearly 1,000 children who remained separated as of early 2023–2025 audits, underscoring that separations persisted and that government reconciliation remains incomplete [2] [6]. These documented post-2020 separations are measurable but do not approach the scale of the 2017–2019 peak.
5. Bottom line: what can be stated with confidence and what remains unknown
Confident statements: DHS/ICE Family Unit Actions reports provide verifiable counts for specific post-2020 reporting periods (e.g., 142 children separated in FY2022 window) and multiple independent reports document thousands separated in the 2017–2021 era with hundreds still unreunited [1] [3]. Remaining uncertainty: there is no universal, reconciled public figure that isolates exactly how many children were separated by ICE since 2020 alone, because public reports use different definitions, timeframes, and methods, and because ongoing identification and self-reporting efforts change case tallies over time [2] [5]. The most accurate approach is to rely on DHS Family Unit Actions reports for post-2020 counts and on independent audits to measure unresolved legacy harm; combining both gives the fullest, evidence-based picture [5] [4].