The Guardian has obtained detailed immigration records through a lawsuit against the Trump administration, revealing that the parents of at least 27,000 children were arrested in a seven-month period. The data, extracted from 'Record of Deportable/Inadmissible Alien' forms (I-213), includes biographical details such as criminal history and the number and nationalities of children under 18.
Legal Battle for Transparency
The Guardian filed multiple records requests for I-213 forms, which immigration agents complete for each arrest. When the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) failed to respond, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a lawsuit on behalf of the newspaper. Through this litigation, the Guardian received spreadsheets covering fiscal year 2023 through August 2025.
What the Data Reveals
The documents show that the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign targeted a wide range of individuals. The Guardian matched 86% of the I-213 records with data from the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley. This combined dataset allowed reporters to track the number of parents arrested each month and the resulting impact on children.
The release of these documents is intended to aid journalists, researchers, and advocates in understanding the scale and nature of immigration enforcement under the Trump administration. The data has been minimally processed to remove potentially identifiable information.
Impact on Families
The investigation highlights the human cost of the administration's policies. By analyzing the records, The Guardian found that thousands of children were affected by parental arrests. The administration had promised to focus on the 'worst of the worst,' but the data suggests a broader net was cast.
The Guardian continues to release all documents received through the lawsuit, encouraging further analysis by newsrooms and researchers.
