ICE is Detaining Children Well Beyond the Legal Limit

• ICE ignoring legal precedent and holding children longer than courts allow

• Over 900 children detained longer than legal limit

• Families report serious trauma in children held beyond limit

When Russian asylum-seeker Aleksei arrived at the U.S. border with his wife and their 5-year-old twins, he believed their time in immigration detention would be brief.

Families with children are generally not supposed to be held longer than 20 days under the Flores Settlement Agreement, a decades-old court settlement designed to protect minors from prolonged detention.

But after immigration officials sent the family to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas, those 20 days passed — and they were still there.

“OK, 20 days. We just wait and pray for God to release us,” Aleksei said he told himself.

Weeks later, when he asked an ICE officer why the deadline had been ignored, the officer reportedly replied: “Take it up with my boss.”

“Who’s that?” Aleksei asked.

“Trump.”

The officer also told Aleksei that the Flores settlement “is not applicable anymore.” That statement is incorrect. The agreement remains in force, though the Trump administration has been challenging it in court.

Hundreds of Children Held Beyond Legal Limits

According to data collected by court-appointed monitors and shared with NBC News, more than 900 children had been detained in family immigration facilities for longer than 20 days as of January. About 270 children were held for more than 40 days, double the commonly recognized limit.

Immigration lawyers say the extended detention is part of a broader strategy to discourage asylum claims by placing pressure on families.

As detention stretches from weeks into months, advocates say the emotional toll on children can be severe.

Families Describe Psychological Harm

Parents and lawyers report that children detained beyond the 20-day threshold often experience regression and trauma. Some children begin wetting the bed again, sucking their thumbs or experiencing night terrors.

One parent told attorneys that their child asked: “Are we bad people? Are they going to kill us here?”

Families held at the Dilley facility have also reported spoiled food, limited schooling and delays in medical care.

Children With Disabilities Among Those Detained

Vilma Bautista Torres, who sought asylum after fleeing Honduras, said she and her 9-year-old son with severe autism were held at Dilley for more than 80 days.

Without access to therapy or specialized schooling, she said her son became increasingly distressed, hitting himself and crying through the night.

“He didn’t have therapy. He didn’t have school. He didn’t have anything,” she said.

Child psychiatrist Dr. Gilbert Kliman, who has evaluated children in immigration detention, said prolonged confinement is especially harmful for autistic children who rely on routine and structured environments.

“I could hardly think of a worse way to treat an autistic boy,” he said.

Some Families Detained for Many Months

In another case, an 18-year-old woman named Habiba Soliman and her four younger siblings have been held at Dilley for more than nine months while immigration authorities investigate their father, who has been charged in a separate criminal case.

Their lawyer argues that detaining children because of their father’s alleged crimes is unconstitutional.

“This place broke something in us,” Soliman said from inside the facility.

A Long Wait for Freedom

Aleksei’s family ultimately spent more than 120 days in detention — six times the 20-day threshold associated with the Flores settlement.

During that time, he said his twins lost weight, struggled to sleep and grew afraid of the guards.

“They asked if we were bad people,” he said.

Eventually, after months of searching for legal help, a lawyer filed a request for parole. The family was released in February.

But Aleksei says the experience changed his children.

“They are not the same,” he said.

And many other families remain inside.