US Senator warns of administration plan to hastily remove over 500 unaccompanied migrant children
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Democratic U.S. senator warned that the Trump administration is preparing to bypass legal protections and round up 500 immigrant children in a rushed effort to remove them from the country. This would be theirs second try That’s after a federal court last year intervened in an overnight plan to fly hundreds of children over Labor Day weekend.
Senator Ron Wyden The Oregonian wrote in a letter Wednesday to U.S. Surgeon General Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which cares for unaccompanied immigrant children, that he has “reliable information” that the Trump administration has a list of more than 500 immigrant children it is targeting for a rapid deportation process and that the department is racing to act within days. He warned that the administration had abdicated its “core humanitarian and child welfare duties” and demanded that any plans to remove children be stopped immediately.
Wyden, the ranking member and ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over ORR, did not detail how that information was obtained. His office declined to provide further details. ORR is affiliated with the Department of Health and Human Services.
An HHS spokesman denied any such plans.
“The new information I have received leads me to believe that the Department has laid the groundwork for another unlawful deportation effort, this time on a larger scale in more countries of origin,” Wyden wrote.
“You have been entrusted with the care and safety of the children placed in the ORR network. To continue with this plan would knowingly endanger their lives and breach your duty to these vulnerable children.”
Wyden also issued an early warning last August about what would ultimately happen. a chaotic weekend The Trump administration’s efforts to remove Guatemalan children from its care and send them home.
HHS spokeswoman Emily Hilliard said there were “no plans to target these children” and called Wyden’s claims “irresponsible fear-mongering.”
“The Trump Administration is working to identify the parents or legal guardians of unaccompanied alien children in our care because it is our top priority to ensure that each child is placed with an appropriately vetted sponsor,” he said.
On Labor Day weekendIn 2013, dozens of immigrant children living in government-controlled shelters or with foster families were taken from their homes and flown to airports in Texas bound for Guatemala. A federal judge woke up in the middle of the night and finally stopped the planes. Lawyers for the children, many of whom came to the United States to escape violence at home, later explained how traumatic the midnight removal effort was for them.
The administration has insisted on reuniting Guatemalan children with parents or guardians who wish to return, at the Central American country’s request. Lawyers for at least some of the children said this was untrue and argued that in any case authorities would have had to follow due process, which they did not do.
Immigrant children traveling alone are often entrusted to the care of the U.S. government, and there are a variety of legal protections designed to protect them once they arrive in the U.S. and begin navigating the immigration system.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 is one of the key pieces of legislation designed to protect them. With some limited exceptions, children must be placed in the “least restrictive environment possible”; This means they can often be released to a sponsor, such as a relative in the US, while immigration proceedings are ongoing.
If children cannot return to their country due to abuse or neglect, they can apply for special protection status or asylum.
The Trump administration did this It’s getting harder for These children will be left to sponsors. Management says it does due diligence to ensure sponsors are thoroughly vetted and that children have been exposed to dangerous situations in the past.
But advocates say the result is this: children waiting for months in state shelters.
This time, Wyden said, the children at risk of removal came from several countries, including Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Afghanistan, and were held in U.S. custody (mostly in foster care) for at least 180 days. He said they were identified as not having a “viable sponsor” in the U.S. who could come forward and take care of them.
The absence of a specific sponsor may mean that the child’s parents are in their home country, have died, or are afraid to adopt their child. ICE begins arresting some parents Those who are not legally in the country during reunification efforts.
