Five-year-old Liam Ramos was heading home from preschool when he was sent to a Texas family detention facility with his father. He is one of many small children whose lives have been upended by immigration enforcement.

A judge ordered his return home; however, he is only one of many children detained. Reporters Anna Flagg and Shannon Heffernan of The Marshall Project write that more than 3800 children under age 18, including 20 infants, have been booked into detention in the past year. Over 1300 of them were held in detention for longer than 20 days, despite the Flores Settlement of 1997, which considered longer stays excessive for children. (Flagg and Heffernan, 2026).

We’ve recognized for two hundred years, when the New York Children’s Aid Society and the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children were established, that children are not just early versions of adults; they need to be protected. We’ve learned a great deal more about child development since then. We know that the early years are critical for........

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