Exclusive: Trump administration moves to rapidly deport migrant children, asking teens if they want to leave

CNN

6 days ago

The Trump administration is moving to rapidly deport some migrant children who arrived in the US without a parent or guardian by having federal agents ask teens whether they want to voluntarily depart the country, according to two Homeland Security officials and a source familiar with the discussions.
The latest directive, which comes as the administration seeks to ramp up deportations, marks a departure from long-standing protocol which required that federal authorities turn over most unaccompanied children to the Health and Human Services Department, the agency charged with their care. Up until now, federal authorities didn't ask unaccompanied kids from countries other than Mexico and Canada if they wanted to self deport.
This week, US Customs and Border Protection personnel were directed to ask children they encounter in immigration enforcement operations across the country whether they want to voluntarily depart the United States, the officials said. If the child agrees, agents will turn that child over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation. But if ICE doesn't pick them up from CBP custody within 72 hours, agents will refer them to HHS.
Two of the sources said the new policy is designed to apply to children ages 14 to 17.
'This is a long-standing practice that was used by previous administrations to prioritize getting children back to the safety of a parent or legal guardian in their home country. The policy of offering unaccompanied alien children (UACs) the option to withdraw their application for admission into the U.S. is accredited in the Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2022,' a Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement.
'The only change pursuant to the Big Beautiful Bill is expanding this option to return home to UACs from additional countries beyond Mexico and Canada,' the spokesperson added.
The administration has been leaning on so-called self-deportations as they double down on President Donald Trump's sweeping mass deportation campaign. Some families, including those from mixed-status households, have opted to leave the country voluntarily, fearful of the administration's immigration crackdown.
Unaccompanied children residing in the US are usually afforded special protections given that they are deemed a vulnerable population. They are generally placed with family members already living in the US but are still deemed unaccompanied because they entered the country alone.
While existing policy generally allows for the swift removal of children arriving from Mexico and Canada because they're contiguous countries, that's not true for children of other nationalities. And the targeting of those kids from other countries — many of whom are living in the US with family — marks an escalation of the administration's deportation efforts.
'A child is in no position to understand the consequences of self-deporting, particularly without the guidance of an attorney,' said Neha Desai, managing director of Children's Human Rights at the National Center for Youth Law. 'Unaccompanied children are being used as pawns in an effort to deport as many people as possible, regardless of the human toll it takes on the most vulnerable members of our community.'
Trump and his top aides have repeatedly cited the influx of children who arrived at the US southern border alone under the Biden administration as a critique of his predecessor and his handling of border security. Trump officials argue that hundreds of thousands of those children went unaccounted for — and are in potentially dangerous situations. Former Biden officials and several experts refute those claims.
But that's served as the premise for multiple initiatives focused on unaccompanied migrant children who are either in government custody or living with family in the United States.
CNN previously reported that migrant children were coming back into government custody because of enforcement actions against their so-called sponsors, legal services typically offered to kids were being cut off, and children were being placed on expedited court dockets to speed up deportations.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which has been in place for more than two decades, provides protections for unaccompanied migrant children who arrive and reside in the US, including being screened to see if they are victims of human trafficking or have a credible fear of persecution in their home country.
Children from Mexico and Canada have been asked to voluntarily depart as part of the removal process along the US southern border, but that hasn't been true for kids of other nationalities and it's unclear how the directive aligns with the protections outlined in law.
'They are not competent to make their own decisions,' a former Homeland Security official told CNN, referring to young migrant children. 'That's the whole idea — that they're a child. It's the whole premise of TVPRA.'
Other policy changes concerning unaccompanied children are also underway.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement, a federal agency that falls under HHS, has also implemented new guidelines that the agency describes as part of a broader effort to strengthen vetting of sponsors, who are usually family members of children. The guidelines require that staff meet with them in person before placing the kids, according to an email sent to staff and obtained by CNN.
But it also notes that federal law enforcement agencies 'may be present to meet their own mission objectives, which may include interviewing sponsors,' the email states. The potential involvement of federal enforcement agencies could exacerbate the already present chilling effect among immigrant families, many of whom are undocumented and who have children in custody, experts say.
'We are witnessing a fundamental unraveling of protections for this vulnerable population — a population that a bipartisan Congress sought to protect years ago through landmark federal legislation,' Desai said.