President Donald Trump’s administration is directing immigration brokers to trace down unaccompanied migrant kids within the U.S., a supply aware of the plans informed ABC Information.
An inner doc from Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE), headlined the “Unaccompanied Alien Youngsters Joint Initiative Discipline Implementation,” mentioned the initiative claims to forestall kids from being human trafficked or different sorts of exploitation.
There are greater than 600,000 migrant kids who’ve crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with no authorized guardian or guardian since 2019, in line with authorities knowledge.
The initiative, in line with the supply acquainted, claims to make sure migrant kids will not be victims of human trafficking or victims of different types of exploitation. The plan, which lays out 4 phases of implementation, mentioned minors could be served a discover to seem in immigration court docket or deported — if deportation orders had been pending in opposition to them.
ICE collected knowledge on unaccompanied minors and sorted them into three teams: “flight threat,” “public security” and “border safety.” Brokers had been informed to prioritize “flight threat” minors, together with those that have obtained orders of deportation for lacking court docket hearings, the supply mentioned of the interior doc.
Members of the Texas Nationwide Guard stand guard close to the border wall between Mexico and america, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Jan. 14, 2025.
Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters, FILE
The transfer from the Trump administration comes after Republicans claimed final 12 months that the Biden administration “misplaced 300,000” migrant kids — a determine specialists and advocates say lacks context.
The claims come from a DHS inner watchdog report final 12 months that discovered that ICE had not served notices to seem to greater than 291,000 unaccompanied migrant kids. The inner watchdog warned that previously 5 years, greater than 32,000 unaccompanied migrant kids failed to seem for his or her immigration court docket hearings, and ICE was “not in a position to account” for all of their areas.
“The distinctive wants of kids require the administration to make sure a degree of care that takes under consideration their vulnerability whereas it determines whether or not they want long-term safety in america,” Wendy Younger, the President of Youngsters in Want of Protection mentioned in a press release to ABC Information.
“To achieve success in its objectives, the federal government should accomplice with authorized service suppliers and the huge community of personal sector professional bono companions who present thousands and thousands of {dollars} in free authorized providers to make sure kids perceive the method and may share their causes for in search of security in america. Then the federal government can determine with confidence who wants safety and who can safely return to their nation of origin,” Younger added.
Reuters first reported the contents of the interior doc from ICE.
