Eight years after the Trump administration first started separating migrant families, the current one is ripping them apart with a quieter tactic. It is a deception that hinges upon one word: “unaccompanied.”
The designation allows federal authorities to place minors without a parent or a guardian in the US into shelters or foster homes. But in the case of ICE’s new strategy, countless children are being labeled as such for no reason, then separated from family members. My colleagues report:
Federal agents have picked up hundreds of immigrant children in the interior of the country and sent them to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a vast departure from prior administrations, when interior referrals to the agency were rare. Anywhere from 500 to more than 700 of these kids, according to sources familiar with the cases, had previously crossed the border alone and spent time in ORR custody, but were living with their sponsors when ICE returned them to the agency. These “re-referrals” are the subject of lawsuits and investigations.
The result is an administration that, in effect, is creating a whole class of unaccompanied minors. The children caught up in this tactic are struggling, and family testimonies have been nothing short of harrowing: “You kidnapped my son.”
“He’s small. He needs his father.”
“You tricked me.”
Read Samantha Michaels’ and Isabela Dias’ report here.
—Inae Oh
