Since the start of President Trump's second term, the administration has detained nearly half a million immigrants in the U.S.

That's according to a new report.

But the number of children they leave behind and what happens to them, most of whom are U.S. citizens, is largely unknown.

Our White House correspondent, Liz Landers, has more.

Liz.

Jeff, that new research from the Brookings Institution finds that by detaining

400,000 immigrants over the past 14 months, the Trump administration also stripped about

145,000 American children of at least one parent. Data from the Department of Homeland Security

calculates a much smaller number, 60,000. Tara Watson is one of the Brookings Studies authors, and she joins us now to discuss that

discrepancy and more. Tara, thank you so much for joining us.

Glad to be here.

The Washington Post recently reported a story about a woman who was in the United States

illegally and was deported without her toddler, Orlin Hernandez-Reyes, who was a U.S. citizen.

The child was left with a violent uncle who allegedly murdered him.

How much information is the government collecting on cases where a U.S. citizen child is left without their parent?

There's surprisingly little information provided by the government about the children of people who are detained or deported.

The government does produce annual statistics, but we believe those to be quite an undercount, probably only about half of children are recorded in that way,

both because ICE doesn't always follow the directive to ask people, whether they have children

in the U.S., but also because immigrants don't always feel comfortable sharing that information

for fear of further enforcement against their family.

You mentioned ICE asking those questions.

They're supposed to ask detainees about their parental status.

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