Under the Trump administration, thousands of immigrant children have been detained, and many have suffered from medical neglect, according to reporting from The New Yorker and verified by...
In early February 2026, Elora Mukherjee, director of a leading immigrants’-rights clinic at Columbia Law School, described the case of a client known as Baby Amalia, an eighteen-month-old...
Mukherjee’s investigation revealed that the suffering of children, including infants and toddlers, has become central to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement strategy.
Under the Trump administration, thousands of immigrant children have been detained, and many have suffered from medical neglect, according to reporting from The New Yorker and verified by multiple sources including the ACLU and KFF.
In early February 2026, Elora Mukherjee, director of a leading immigrants’-rights clinic at Columbia Law School, described the case of a client known as Baby Amalia, an eighteen-month-old toddler who was hospitalized in San Antonio with critically low oxygen levels and spent over a week in intensive care. After discharge, the child and her mother were returned to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas, where ICE agents confiscated the nebulizer medication prescribed by doctors, despite the child’s ongoing medical needs.
Widespread Medical Neglect in Detention Facilities
Mukherjee’s investigation revealed that the suffering of children, including infants and toddlers, has become central to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement strategy. In Chicago and Portland, federal agents fired chemical munitions at children. In Idaho, children were swept up in a raid on a family-friendly horse race and zip-tied until their wrists bruised or bled. These actions, she argued, are not collateral damage but deliberate components of enforcement policy.
Medical Neglect Trump Detention
Systemic Abuse at Major Detention Centers
Interviews with 45 individuals at Fort Bliss, the largest immigration detention site in the United States, documented patterns of physical and sexual abuse, medical neglect, and intimidation designed to pressure detainees into self-deportation. Despite these findings, the facility passed an ICE inspection, according to the ACLU’s April 13, 2026 update.
Federal Oversight and Health Consequences
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said that any claims that Amalia “did not receive her medication or proper medical treatment” are false.
Blatant medical neglect of detained children in Dilley: Case 5
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson
The KFF analysis of ICE detention centers under the second Trump administration provides an overview of deaths and healthcare issues in custody, confirming ongoing concerns about medical neglect and preventable harm to detained immigrants, including children.
Broader Pattern of Family Detention
The New Yorker’s April 20, 2026 feature, “The Return of Family Detention,” details how the administration’s executive actions in the first days of Donald Trump’s second term effectively directed immigration enforcement against children, reversing prior protections and expanding the use of detention facilities for families despite documented harm to minors’ health and safety.
As of April 17, 2026, these practices continue to draw criticism from medical professionals, legal advocates, and human rights organizations, who cite violations of basic medical standards and international norms regarding the treatment of children in state custody.
