Trump administration to let contract aiding unaccompanied minors expire

A series of federal laws has for decades shielded child immigrants from removal, either to protect their safety or to allow them to testify against abusers or human traffickers. 

 But the Trump administration has undermined those laws, immigrant advocates and prosecutors say, by directing immigration judges to fast-track deportation cases for minors and blocking their access to lawyers who might help them apply for several forms of relief from removal – including acting as witnesses in cases of human trafficking or domestic violence...

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/30/trump-administration-children-immigration 

 

The Department of Homeland Security Is “Kidnapping People’s Kids” – Mother Jones

But lawyers around the country who work with unaccompanied children paint a remarkably different picture. They tell me that abuse by fake sponsors is relatively rare, and that most sponsors really are who they say they are: family members. The Trump administration, by and large, isn’t saving kids—it’s separating them from loved ones and putting them in detention for months on end. 

Unaccompanied minors taken into custody at the end of the Biden administration were held by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) for about 37 days on average. Under the Trump administration, the average is about six months, and many children have been detained more than a year. “A majority of the kids in our facilities today have biological parents who want them home, and there’s no reason the government shouldn’t be releasing them,” says Jessica Richardson, an attorney whose nonprofit, The Door, works with detained kids in New York...

 https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/06/trump-dhs-ice-family-separations-office-refugee-resettlement-orr-unaccompanied-minors/

 

Opinion | Hey, whatever happened to the border crisis? - The Washington Post

"In March, the Border Patrol rescued 18,663 unaccompanied minors fleeing life-threatening conditions, the overwhelming majority of whom were quickly processed and placed in appropriate settings."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/02/hey-what-happened-border-crisis/

PolitiFact | No, Biden is not separating families entering the country

The children in federal care were not separated from their parents; they arrived unaccompanied.....

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/feb/25/glenn-beck/no-biden-not-separating-families-entering-country/