Summary
- The Trump administration plans to remove nearly 700 unaccompanied Guatemalan children.
- Children currently in US custody under Health and Human Services supervision.
- Repatriation is described as a trial initiative with Guatemalan government collaboration.
- Action includes stopping placements with US-based relatives, labeled as repatriation.
Wyden told Angie Salazar, acting director of the Department of Health and Human Services office in charge of migrant children who enter the country alone, that the removals would be against the Office of Refugee Resettlement's
"child welfare mandate and this country's long-established obligation to these children."
“Unaccompanied children are some of the most vulnerable children entrusted to the government’s care,”
the Democratic senator wrote, asking for the deportation plans to be terminated.
“In many cases, these children and their families have had to make the unthinkable choice to face danger and separation in search of safety.”
Wyden's letter, which included anonymous whistleblowers, stated that minors who do not have an asylum case pending or who do not have a parent or legal guardian as a sponsor "will be forcibly removed from the country."
The Trump administration's broad immigration enforcement initiatives, which include plans to send agents to Chicago for an immigration crackdown, increase deportations, and remove protections for those who have been granted permission to live and work in the country, are being carried out in this way.
Requests for comment on the most recent action, which CNN first reported, were not immediately answered by the White House or the Department of Health and Human Services. The government of Guatemala chose not to respond.
“This move threatens to separate children from their families, lawyers, and support systems, to thrust them back into the very conditions they are seeking refuge from, and to disappear vulnerable children beyond the reach of American law and oversight,” Wyden's letter says.
One of the most delicate topics in immigration is how to treat unaccompanied immigrant children because of their young age and the trauma they frequently endured traveling to the United States. Advocacy organizations have already filed a lawsuit to request the courts stop the Trump administration's new unaccompanied child vetting procedures, claiming that they are cruel and prolonging family separation.
In July, the head of Guatemala's immigration agency stated that 341 unaccompanied youngsters detained in U.S. facilities were to be repatriated.
“The idea is to bring them back before they reach 18 years old so that they are not taken to an adult detention center,”
Guatemala Immigration Institute Director Danilo Rivera said at the time. He said it would be done at Guatemala’s expense and would be a form of voluntary return.
When agents at the U.S.-Mexico border come across migrant children traveling without their parents or guardians, they turn them over to the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Once in the United States, kids frequently reside in foster care households or government-run shelters until they are able to be released to a sponsor, who is typically a family member.
They can apply for visas for victims of sexual exploitation, juvenile immigration status, or asylum.
Activists who assist children in the immigration process expressed alarm over the prospect of sending so many youngsters back to their native countries.
“We are outraged by the Trump administration’s renewed assault on the rights of immigrant children,”
said Lindsay Toczylowski, president and CEO of Immigrant Defenders Law Center.
“We are not fooled by their attempt to mask these efforts as mere ‘repatriations.’ This is yet another calculated attempt to sever what little due process remains in the immigration system.”
How will the administration decide which nearly 700 Guatemalan children are removed?
Children without a parent or legal guardian designated as their sponsor in the U.S. or children who do not have active asylum or immigration cases will be targeted for removal. The administration is focusing on children currently in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which oversees unaccompanied migrant children.
Those who have already been placed with family sponsors in the U.S. may be at lower risk of removal, but the administration has also instructed a halt to releases to some relatives or guardians if they do not meet strict criteria.
The plan aims to repatriate children before they turn 18 to avoid their transfer to adult detention centers.