ACLU Report: 214 Children Caught Up in Immigration Enforcement, 32 of Them U.S. Citizens

The ACLU’s Agents of Chaos and Cruelty, a review of more than 1,200 immigration enforcement incidents across eight states in 2025, identified 214 children who were detained, targeted for enforcement, or subjected to law enforcement misconduct — including 32 U.S. citizen children. Researchers logged 157 incidents where children were present or targeted, 54 in which agents directly interrogated or detained children, 49 at or near school grounds affecting 54 schools, 40 school lockdowns triggered by nearby enforcement, and 11 at playgrounds and school bus stops. In Denham Springs, Louisiana, masked Border Patrol agents sped past a trailer park where more than a dozen schoolchildren waited for the bus; a witness reported only about eight made it onto the bus. After agents threw tear gas into a Chicago street near Funston Elementary during recess, a parent later overheard her six-year-old whisper to her dolls, “We have to be good or ICE will get us.”