The Guardian has obtained and is releasing detailed immigration records from the Trump administration through a lawsuit, revealing that the administration arrested the parents of at least 27,000 children in just seven months.
Background of the Investigation
Donald Trump entered his second term promising "mass deportations" and targeting the "worst of the worst." The Guardian sought to identify exactly who would be caught in this deportation dragnet. This led to the acquisition of "Record of Deportable/Inadmissible Alien" forms, known as I-213 forms, which immigration agents fill out upon each arrest alleging unauthorized presence in the country. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) uses these forms in court to prove illegal status.
Legal Battle to Obtain Records
The Guardian filed a series of records requests for I-213 forms from the Trump administration. When the government failed to respond, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a non-profit providing legal services to journalists, filed a lawsuit on the Guardian's behalf. Months later, through this litigation, the Guardian received spreadsheets with data extracted from I-213 forms covering fiscal year 2023 through August 2025.
Data Released and Its Significance
The Guardian is releasing all documents received so far. The spreadsheets contain biographical details about each person, including criminal history and the number and nationalities of their children under 18. This data has been minimally processed to remove potentially identifiable information. These documents proved crucial in reporting on who the administration is arresting and deporting. The Guardian used I-213 data to investigate government claims about immigrants' criminal convictions and the impact of mass deportation on families.
Collaboration with Deportation Data Project
To report on family separation, the Guardian matched 86% of I-213 records with unique records from the Deportation Data Project, a team of academics and lawyers at the University of California, Berkeley tracking immigration enforcement using government data. By combining datasets filtered to the same date range, using apprehension date, area of responsibility, age, gender, and apprehension site, the Guardian reported the number of parents arrested and deported monthly and the number of children affected.
The Guardian hopes this data will be valuable to fellow reporters, researchers, and advocates. View and download the records obtained by the Guardian online.
