This article from the Marshall Project describes how thousands of U.S. children are removed from their homes each year to be placed in foster care for only a few days and later returned to their families. "Every year, an average of nearly 17,000 children are removed from their families’ custody and placed in foster care only to be reunited within 10 days, according to a Marshall Project analysis of federal Department of Health and Human Services records dating back a decade."
Analysis reveals that certain officials who have been granted authority by states to "take a child from her parents without a court order if they believe the child faces imminent danger of physical harm"—such as police officers, child-services workers or hospital staff—remove thousands of children a year who are "quickly returned to their families after child-services officials review the evidence."
These removals happen most in high-poverty areas, according to the article. "Although short stays in foster care may seem too fleeting to matter, they often inflict lasting damage, much like that experienced by children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. Experts and studies on child development say that the moment when a child is taken from her parents is the source of lifelong trauma, regardless of how long the separation lasts."