An investigation by Mother Jones, published on October 5, reports that federal immigration enforcement is separating children from their parents inside the United States and then classifying them as “unaccompanied”, placing them with the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). The Department of Homeland Security has told reporters that ICE does not separate families.
The investigation, titled “You Kidnapped My Son” and written by reporters Samantha Michaels and Isabela Dias, centres on an 11-year-old Venezuelan boy, given the pseudonym Andrés, and his father, called Luis. The report says the pair entered the United States in 2023 and lived in Texas before immigration officers arrested them together at their El Paso home on April 28 this year. The father was placed in adult detention. The boy was transferred to ORR, the Health and Human Services agency responsible for children deemed unaccompanied, and placed in foster care. The report says the family spent days trying to locate him.
A months-long stay in foster care
Andrés spent more than three months in foster care before returning to Venezuela through voluntary departure in August, according to the report. His family says they were not told when he would arrive, and that he waited near the airport until his mother found him. The family says his stepmother began sponsoring him but withdrew, lacking a taxpayer ID — leaving ORR no approved sponsor to release him to. Court-record reporting on the El Paso case notes the withdrawn application left the agency without an approved adult to release the boy to.
A wider pattern in the numbers
Attorneys interviewed by Mother Jones say more children with families are being drawn into the ORR system. Children picked up far from the border made up about 20 per cent of ORR referrals between July 2025 and May 2026, compared with 3 to 5 per cent under past administrations, according to reporting on the investigation. The average time a child spends in ORR custody has reportedly grown from roughly one month to roughly six. The reporting says some relatives who came forward to sponsor a child were arrested by ICE at required appointments, because ORR shares sponsor information with immigration enforcement. DHS defended ORR’s stricter sponsorship requirements as a safeguard against child abuse and trafficking.
The central claims remain contested. The reporting has drawn criticism: a right-leaning outlet, citing court records, argued the withdrawn application meant ORR legally had no completed application it could approve. DHS maintains that ICE does not separate families. Disputed federal actions have drawn the federal courts in this month, and investigative scrutiny has previously forced federal departments to revise official records — enforcement accountability rarely arrives without sustained scrutiny.
