WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� A Democratic U.S. senator warns the Trump administration is getting ready to round up 500 immigrant children in a hasty effort to remove them from the country, bypassing legal protections. It would be their after a federal court intervened last year in an overnight plan to fly out hundreds of children on Labor Day weekend.
of Oregon wrote in a letter Wednesday to U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which oversees the Office of Refugee Resettlement caring for unaccompanied migrant children, that he had 鈥渃redible information鈥� that the Trump administration had a list of more than 500 migrant children it was targeting for a fast-track removal process and that the department was racing to act in days. He warned that the administration was abdicating 鈥渃ore humanitarian and child welfare mandates鈥� and demanded an immediate halt to any plans to remove the children.
Wyden, who is the ranking member and senior Democrat of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over ORR, did not detail how he came by his information. His office declined to provide further details. ORR falls under the Department of Health and Human Services.
An HHS spokesperson denied any such plans.
鈥淭he new information I obtained leads me to believe that the Department is laying the groundwork for another lawless deportation effort, this time on a greater scale, across more countries of origin,鈥� Wyden wrote.
鈥淵ou have been entrusted with the care and safety of the children placed within the ORR network. Proceeding with this plan knowingly endangers their lives and violates your duty to these vulnerable children.鈥�
Wyden also issued an early warning last August ahead of what eventually became efforts by the Trump administration to remove Guatemalan children in its care and send them home.
HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said in 鈥渢here are no plans to target these children,鈥� calling Wyden’s claims 鈥漣rresponsible fearmongering.”
鈥淭he Trump Administration is working to identify the parents or legal guardians of unaccompanied alien children in our care because ensuring every child is placed with a properly vetted sponsor is our top priority,鈥� she said.
Over , dozens of migrant children either staying in government-supervised shelters or with foster families were taken from their homes and bused to airfields in Texas bound for Guatemala. A federal judge woken up in the middle of the night eventually stopped the planes. Lawyers for the children 鈥� many who had fled violence at home to come to the U.S. 鈥� later described how traumatic the middle-of-the-night removal effort was for them.
The administration insisted it was reuniting the Guatemalan children 鈥� at the Central American nation鈥檚 request 鈥� with parents or guardians who sought their return. Lawyers for at least some of the children said that wasn鈥檛 true and argued that in any event, authorities still would have to follow a legal process that they did not.
Migrant children traveling alone are usually entrusted to U.S. government care, and there are various legal protections designed to protect them once they鈥檙e in the U.S. and navigating the immigration system.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 is one of the key pieces of legislation designed to protect them. With some limited exceptions, it requires that children be placed in the 鈥渓east restrictive setting possible,鈥� which generally means that they can be released to a sponsor such as a relative in the U.S. while their immigration proceedings play out.
The children can apply for a specially protected status if they can鈥檛 return to their home country because of abuse or neglect and they can also apply for asylum.
The Trump administration has made those children to be released to sponsors though. The administration says that they are doing due diligence to make sure that sponsors are thoroughly vetted and that in the past, children were released into dangerous situations.
But advocates say that the result has been in government shelters.
This time, Wyden said the children at risk of being removed come from various countries, potentially including Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Afghanistan, and have been in U.S. custody 鈥� mainly in foster care 鈥� for at least 180 days. He said they were described as not having any 鈥渧iable sponsor” who could come forward and take care of them in the U.S.
Not having an identified sponsor could mean the child’s parents are in their home countries, are deceased or are too afraid to claim their children after who are not in the country legally during their reunification efforts.
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