The Decibel - Toddlers among Canadians detained by ICE

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

A Globe and Mail investigation has revealed the extent to which Canadians have been caught up in U.S. President Trump’s immigration crackdown. Analysis of data, obtained through a federal lawsuit, shows nearly 150 Canadians have been detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since the beginning of this year. These Canadians range from 2 years old to 77 years old. Kathryn Blaze Baum, an investigative reporter for The Globe, joins The Decibel to break down the exclusive reporting, explains what the Canadian government says it’s willing to do and whether advocates think that’s enough. Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [e-mail]

Johnny Noviolo was a 49-year-old Canadian citizen who had been living in the United States for the vast majority of his life. Catherine Blazebaum is an investigative reporter with The Globe. He had been living in Florida specifically, and most recently he was working at the Dollar Tree and helping out at his dad's car dealership in Daytona. In 2023, though, he was convicted of several drug-related charges, and that's a turn of a event. events that sort of changed everything. And that's because under immigration laws, non-U.S. citizens, like Mr. Noviolo, who are convicted of drug offenses, they may be removed from the country. So in May of this year, Mr. Noviolo was picked up at a probation office and then detained for several weeks at a federal prison known as

the federal detention center, Miami. Johnny's arrest is just one of thousands. U.S. President Donald Trump has ramped up ICE enforcement since returning to office at the beginning of the year. And I say that it's a prison because this is explicitly not an immigration facility, but rather a jail that has an agreement with ICE to house detainees. We don't know exactly what happened to Johnny inside that facility, but there have been disturbing reports about the place. In recent years, it has seen suicides and has been the subject of numerous complaints about the treatment of medically vulnerable inmates. And then, on June 23rd at 1254, Mr. Noviolo was found unresponsive. Medical staff called 911, and they tried to resuscitate him. They brought out the defibrillator, and efforts were made to save him.

But at 1.36 p.m., he was pronounced dead. Johnny Noviello's family are still awaiting the autopsy results. Catherine started to look into the context around Johnny's death, along with reporters Sara Moshah Hadzade, Janice Dixon, and Mahima Singh. They gained access to an ICE database that lists extensive information on arrests and detentions until the end of July. So knowing that Johnny had died, we searched the thousands of cases to see if we could isolate him in the database. And lo and behold, he was there. He was a line on a spreadsheet full of anonymized details.

He was a human being with a unique ID and no name. Together, this group of reporters uncovered the clearest picture yet of how many Canadians have been detained by ICE. Today on the show, Catherine takes us through what she and her colleagues have learned about how many Canadians have been detained, what our government says it's willing to do, and whether advocates think that's enough. I'm Shannon Proudfoot, guest hosting the Decibel from the Globe and Mail. Hi, Catherine. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me.

So, Catherine, you and our colleagues, Sara, Janice, and Mahima gained access to this ICE database. Before we get into the details of what you found, can you describe to me what's in it? Sure. So the database is effectively one massive file with thousands of detent. cases dating back to 2023. And there are a couple of dozen columns providing information such as nationality, year of birth, time in custody, and the reason for the detention. It's anonymized, so there are no names, and people are instead given a unique identifier. Okay. You can use the unique identifier to trace people through the database, which means you can basically sort of watch as they're booked into detention, transferred between facilities, and either deported, released, or held in detention.

Wow. So as you're scrolling through here, I can see different columns for birth year, age, ethnicity, different dates, as you said. And this is what we're looking at. It's all very numerical, but it's the story of people working through this system. Exactly. That's what is so interesting about working with data like this is that when you're looking at it, it's very cold and mathematical. And then you can sort of peel back the layers and start to put together people's stories. I should also mention here that the information was obtained through a federal district court lawsuit against ICE that was brought by the deportation data project, which is run by a group of academics and lawyers in the U.S. So this level of detail that we were able to obtain was not easily come by, to say the least. I see. So let's get into what this data revealed to you. How many Canadians have been held in ICE detention? Our analysis found that 149 Canadians have been held at some point in ICE custody since January. And that is obviously when Donald Trump took office and ordered his massive immigration crackdown. So does that mean all of those people are still in detention right now? No. So further analysis found that as of the end of July, 56 Canadians arrested this year were still in ICE detention.

And the rest had either been removed, left voluntarily, or were released under supervision. There were also a few other Canadians who are also currently detained, but they were arrested in 2023 or 2024. Another thing I should say here, one of our sort of top line findings, was that more Canadians have been booked into detention in the first seven months of this year than in all of last year. In fact, this year's pace is on track to roughly double last years. So that really puts into perspective how large this number is. Exactly.

Do we have any sense of who these people are in terms of their biographically? details? What were you able to elicit from the data? So one of the most striking findings that we found when we parsed the data was that two Canadian toddlers had been detained for weeks at a South Texas facility. I know. And as a mom of three, it was quite horrifying to read through the court documents that showed some of the conditions they're being held in. But what we do know from the data alone is that one of them had been held for 51 days, which is more than double the legal limit for migrant children in the United States. And the other had been held for four days in an ice hold room, which at the time was meant

for a maximum stay of 12 hours. And those hold rooms are places that typically are meant for extremely short stays. And this is because they don't have things like shower facilities or adequate sleeping quarters. And Mahima, our data guru, analyzed the data to see, you know, okay, there's two Canadian toddlers that we're seeing, well, how many children overall have been detained by ice so far this year. And our analysis found that more than 2,500 children have spent time in immigration detention across the U.S. this year and that the vast majority are from Latin American countries. Wow. So these Canadian children, unfortunately, are far from alone in this condition. Very far from alone. So what else were you able to learn about the stories of these

toddlers? So the database can tell us sort of only so much. But what it did reveal is, you know, quite extensive, given that we didn't even know that these children were in detention to begin with until we started analyzing this data. So we can see that among the detainees was a girl born in 2023, which makes her between one and a half and two and a half years old. The database does not include birth dates, just birth years. So we're sort of somewhere around two years old. And she was detained in late May at the South Texas Family Residential Center and appears to have been detained with a Bolivian woman and another child who was born in 2019 and also has Bolivian citizenship.

Now, the way we were able to deduce that is sort of through some sorting of the data because the data itself doesn't indicate when detainees are being held with other family members, but we were able to see that these Canadian children and certain adults had exactly matching book-in times, transfer dates and times, and release times. So the Bolivian woman, in this particular instance, was picked up for an immigration violation and does not have a criminal record. The woman and two children have since been placed in expedited removal proceedings but have been granted a credible fear referral, which indicates that a fear of persecution exists if they were to be deported. They were granted a conditional release from detention in mid-July to await a decision on their case, but that was only after the child had been there for 50 days.

50 days. And what about the other child, the other very, very young child? The other child was born in 2022 and was also detained in May. And he appears to have been detained with a Congolese woman for almost four days in an ice hold room near the Canadian border. Again, a place that's not meant for detentions of that length. The Congolese woman was picked up for an immigration violation, and she, too, does not have a criminal record. And the pair were transferred from that hold room to the same South Texas facility where the other Canadian child was detained, and they remained in custody there for more than two weeks.

And they, too, were subsequently released on a supervision order. I see. So one of these little children was in custody for in excess of 50 days, the other one for about two weeks. What do we know about the conditions they would have faced when in detention? So this facility where these children were held just so happens to be a facility that is very much at the center of a super important case before the courts right now. And it is a case in which the Trump administration is seeking to terminate what is known as the Flores Settlement Agreement. Now this agreement is a decades-old agreement. It sets out protections for children in migration detention. And in it is a requirement that children remain in government custody for no more than 20 days. So what we're seeing pulling back these court records is just a bunch of information about what it's like inside this particular South Texas facility. There are testimonies from children, from mothers, from teenagers. And so we reviewed hundreds of pages of court records in the case, including these sworn declarations.

And I will say that they were extremely difficult to read. Details from these testimonies include, you know, a mother who said she couldn't readily access formula for her baby or potable water to even mix it with, let alone soap to wash the bottles. Children who were held for weeks with no access to toys, activities, or any programming of any sort. And in one person's telling, you know, there was this example of a guard confiscating like a little girl's doll and another that took away some small rocks that some should. children had collected to sort of play make-believe with in their room. There was also a three-year-old boy who was throwing himself on the ground due to what his mother described as lack of sleep and anxiety and a six-year-old with leukemia who had no access to his regular cancer treatment. There was also a teenager who, by this person's telling, you know, had a severe blood disorder and their

legs and feet had become so swollen that they could barely walk. Gosh. So in addition to these testimonies that were filed and sworn by people who were living in the detention facility were also declarations that were sworn by advocacy organizations. And in one of the declarations, they state that they served a family with a nine-month-old baby who lost almost nine pounds over a month's time. And so we know that that is obviously a massive percentage of that baby's overall body weight, which is shocking. That's hard to hear.

It is. So what has the, there's a private company that runs this facility. What have they said in response to some of these concerns being raised? The South Texas facility is run by private corrections giant core civic. So we went to them, obviously, asking about what they say in response to these allegations about these poor conditions. And in a statement, the company's senior director of public affairs, Ryan Guston, said the company's top priority at all its facilities is the, quote, safety, health, and well-being of the individuals entrusted to our care and our dedicated staff, end quote. We'll be right back.

Now, thinking more broadly about all of the Canadians who have been in ICE detention, were you able to get a sense about why they had been detained? Yes, so fortunately, the database does include. a field that sort of speaks to the reason or the criminality or the alleged criminality that this person is being booked in for. And so our analysis found that almost 70% of the Canadians detained by ICE this year have a criminal record or pending criminal charges. And that is the absolute inverse of what we see with the broader immigration detainee population where, you know, the majority of those people haven't been convicted of a crime. Now, what I should say here is that some of these crimes are decades-old convictions

of, you know, they could be possession of a drug. And so these people, yes, they have a criminal conviction, but they had been living in the United States. And while they were technically vulnerable to deportation, they hadn't been picked up by prior administrations. And so an American immigration lawyer that we spoke with explained that Canadians with are being targeted because they're less likely to be scooped up in, you know, workplace raids and that authorities can find these people through their criminal records and potentially

through their probation offices, which appear. to be what happened with Johnny Novi-Ello. So would that help to explain then that inverse proportionality you're talking about between Canadian and other detainees? Exactly. And when we look at the other 30% of Canadians, we were trying to understand, okay, so why were they picked up? And they are listed in the database as having what are described as quote-unquote other

immigration violations. And this can include, for example, overstaying a visa or perhaps making it a regular crossing between ports of entry along the northern border. So what you're saying is that these people would be vulnerable for deportation, either because of their immigration status or because they have a criminal record? Yes, that appears to be the case. I see. But your reporting is not saying that if any random Canadian crosses the border to visit or do something, they're not necessarily at an elevated risk at this point.

Correct. It's prudent to point out that certainly not all Canadians that are a heightened risk of being sort of arbitrarily scooped up by ICE. But yes, those who have a criminal record or pending charges or who don't have the right documentation to be in the United States doing what they're doing or for the duration that they're doing it are more susceptible to being arrested under Trump. Okay, so if nearly 150 Canadians have been detained by ICE this year and there were 56 still in custody as of the end of July, what happened to the rest of them? So what we can say is that some 64 Canadians have already been removed from the U.S. this year. And the data shows that most of them were bound for Canada, though one per

appears to have been sent to Italy and two were sent to Mexico. The rest, the data shows, were either voluntarily removed, meaning they sort of left of their own volition ultimately, or were released under some sort of supervision. So those Canadians who are still in custody, what do we know about where they're being detained then, Catherine? So this is where some more reporting came into play where we actually went in and then geocoded and sort of did a bit of a deep dive on the facilities that were showing up in the database that were relevant to the Canadians that were detained. So we dug into those facilities and found that the 56 Canadians who were arrested this year and still being held as of the end of July were spread across

34 different facilities, including county jails, federal prisons, and privately run ICE detention centers. I should also say that one Canadian was being held at the federal detention center, Miami, where Mr. Noviello died at the end of June. Another finding was that there was was a Canadian who spent nearly 12 days at the Alexandria staging facility in Louisiana. This is, again, a place meant for short-term detentions of under 12 hours. So it's supposed to be three days at maximum and there instead for 12. And that person remains in detention at another facility. In addition, we found that four Canadians are being held at an ICE detention facility

in Pennsylvania where just very recently in recent days, a 32-year-old Chinese citizen was found hanging by neck in his shower room. Goodness. We talked about Johnny Novielo's death. Do we know if any other Canadians have died in custody or how many people in total have died in detention this year? So so far this year, based on ICE's releases, because they have to publicly disclose when there is a death, there have been 13 deaths in ICE custody. And Johnny Noviello is the only Canadian to have died this year. There was a death of a Canadian detainee.

In prior years, I believe it was in 2020, and it was amid the COVID-19 pandemic. So what did the U.S. government or ICE officials have to say about your reporting when you went to them with questions? This was interesting because we've been doing stories about what's going on at the border, whether it's related to fentanyl or immigration. And we have had just terrible time trying to get ICE or really anyone to give us an answer that was substantial or responsive in any way. At least in this case, we got a statement from Trisha McLaughlin, who is the Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. And she said the Trump administration is, quote, committed to restoring the rule of law and common sense to our immigration system, end quote. She said the department takes its responsibility to protect children seriously and that all detainees are provided with proper meals, safe drinking water, and medical care, and have opportunities to communicate with family members and lawyers. And then she also said that allegations of subprime conditions at these facilities are, and then in all caps, false.

We also heard back from the White House. They responded to our request for comment. And in that statement, the administration also defended its immigration policy and said that its ICE facilities have the quote unquote highest standards. I see. What has the Canadian government had to say for its part? Global Affairs Canada hasn't said much. And I think that's what made these revelations so striking. to people who are interested in this file. We have repeatedly been told that Global Affairs Canada is aware of approximately 55 Canadians that are detained in the United States. So our finding found 56. They're saying approximately 55. We have asked them many questions over many months, you know, just aggregate, vague questions. Where are these people? What are there

rough age ranges? How many are men? How many are women? And we are repeatedly met with responses along the lines of, we can't tell you anything because of privacy concerns. The department actually did not respond directly to more than a dozen detailed questions that we sent, and they did not confirm whether Canadian officials were aware that two Canadian children had spent time in ICE detention. What they did say was, quote, due to privacy considerations, we cannot comment on specific cases. And Charlotte McLeod, the spokesperson continued on saying, quote, global affairs Canada can discuss

complaints about ill treatment or discrimination with the local authorities. And it cannot, however, ask for special treatment for citizens, try to spare them from the due process of local law or overrule the decisions of local authorities, end quote. That's interesting. I would think the Canadian response would be complicated right now by the tensions with the Trump administration and various trade and other negotiations. Absolutely. That is something that when we followed up Once the story was published, we then reached out to lawyers, you know, human rights advocates, immigration organizations. And there was a lot of talk among those experts about why Global Affairs Canada would want to be saying very little and how the political landscape might be sort of complicating efforts by consular officials to provide significant assistance to Canadians detained in the United States. So, yeah, these experts that we spoke with said they were underwhelmed by Ottawa's publicly stated response.

And so that prompted us to sort of dig into, okay, well, what is the consular sort of response supposed to be when people are detained? And so we looked at the government's own consular affairs service standards. And it said that consular officials are typically notified of an arrest or detention of a Canadian abroad. And that consular officials will take steps to initiate contact with that person within one word. working day of learning of the detention. Still, though, people like a lawyer with Amnesty International are not convinced that enough is being done. And they describe the globe's findings as horrifying and deeply disturbing. And in the words of Julia Sand, who is with amnesty, she said, what does due process look like for a toddler? Canada can say it can't interfere

in other countries. But what steps is Canada taking to ensure that its citizens, including its toddler citizens' rights, are being upheld? So there's clear tension there in what advocates and experts want the Canadian government to be doing in response to this U.S. policy. It's sort of amazing that the data in this spreadsheet gave you a lot of the answers you've been asking global affairs for for months and months. It did, and it's also raising a lot of other questions that we will continue to dig into. Catherine, thanks so much for joining us today. Pleasure. Thanks for having me. That was investigative reporter Catherine Blaise Baum.

She has been reporting on this story with Sarah Moshto Hadzade, Janice Dixon, and Mahima Singh. This team of reporters is continuing to work on this story, and they are looking for Canadians who know people who are currently in ICE custody. If that's you, you can reach out to us at the decibel, or visit the globe's website, the globe and mail.com. You've got a form you can fill out. That's it for today. I'm Shannon Proudfoot.

Kevin Sexton edited and mixed this episode. Our producers are Madeline White, Mikhail Stein, and Ali Graham. David Crosby edits the show. Adrian Chung is our senior producer, and Angela Pachenza is our executive editor. Thank you for listening. Thank you.