How many children were separated from their parents during the Biden administration
Executive summary
There is no single, authoritative tally of children separated from parents that began during the Biden administration; federal reporting has focused on reunifying children split under prior administrations while independent researchers and advocacy groups have documented hundreds to more than a thousand separations occurring after January 20, 2021 [1] [2] [3]. Available evidence shows continued, documented separations under Biden—ranging from several hundred tracked cases to concentrated local spikes of more than 1,000 incidents—yet gaps in official data prevent a definitive nationwide total [2] [3] [4].
1. What the official numbers count — and what they don’t
The Biden administration’s Family Reunification Task Force and subsequent fact sheets have primarily cataloged and sought to undo separations that happened between January 20, 2017, and January 20, 2021, reporting that roughly 3,924 children were separated during that period and focusing reporting on how many of those remained unreunified [5] [1]. Those official efforts do not provide a clear, separate national count of family separations that began after Biden took office, leaving a gap between reunification reporting and ongoing operational practices that can still separate children from caregivers in field processing [1] [4].
2. Independent tallies and local reporting — hundreds to over a thousand
Non-governmental trackers and local reports document continuing separations under Biden: the Immigrant Defenders Law Center tracked “more than 300” cases of children separated from non-parental relatives since early 2021, while the UCLA-led report highlighted that between September and December 2023 the group Al Otro Lado documented more than 1,000 family separations in San Diego alone [2] [3]. Those findings indicate that, at minimum, hundreds—and in some concentrated periods and places, over a thousand—separations occurred under the Biden administration, though many of these involve varying definitions of “separation” (temporary custody transfers, separations from non-parental relatives, or longer-term placement) [2] [3].
3. Advocacy, human-rights and investigative perspectives
Human Rights Watch and other advocates have emphasized the long-term harm of separations and pointed out both the large numbers from the 2017–2021 window and the existence of continued separations afterward, while urging stronger reunification and accountability measures [6]. UCLA and KPBS reporting argue that separations are a systemic feature of border processing that did not end with the Trump administration and that Biden-era policies and operational capacity constraints contribute to ongoing family splits [3] [4]. These sources present the implicit agenda of pressuring the government to close reporting gaps and change processing practices to prevent separations.
4. Contrasting analyses and contested narratives
Policy think tanks such as Cato stress that Biden increased enforcement in many metrics and attribute some releases or processing outcomes to logistical constraints rather than a deliberate shift to separating families, arguing that migration flows and legal complexities drove many outcomes [7]. Other commentators and conservative outlets highlight instances of separations under Biden to challenge the administration’s critique of Trump-era policy, which introduces partisan incentives into how counts and definitions are stressed in public debate [7] [8].
5. Bottom line and limits of reporting
A precise, single-number answer to “How many children were separated during the Biden administration?” is not available in current public records: federal task-force reporting focuses on reunifying children separated under Trump and does not publish a comprehensive, post‑2021 national tally of separations initiated during Biden’s term [1]. Independent documentation establishes that hundreds — and in some localized periods more than a thousand — separations occurred after January 20, 2021, but methodological differences, patchwork recordkeeping, and limited federal disclosure mean that researchers can only provide ranges and local totals rather than a definitive nationwide figure [2] [3] [4].