Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) outlines push to target migrant children. Memo laid out four phases of implementation, beginning with a planning phase on January 27. Children would be served notice to appear in immigration court or deported if deportation orders were pending against them. Over 600,000 immigrant children have crossed the US-Mexico border without a parent or legal guardian since 2019, as the number of migrants caught crossing illegally reached record levels, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The children were sent to children’s shelters run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a government agency housed within the Department of Homeland Security ( DHS) The children often live in households with adults without authorization to be in the United States, so their addresses could also help ICE boost its overall arrest numbers. The initiative aims to ensure that children are not victims of human trafficking or other forms of exploitation, the memo said. It directed agents to focus on children deemed \”flight risks\” – including those ordered deported for missing court hearings and those released to sponsors who are not blood relatives.
