The administration of President Donald Trump is directing immigration agents to track migrant children not accompanied in the United States, said a source familiar with ABC News plans.
An internal document of immigration and customs and application (ICE) headed the “implementation of the field of the joint initiative of unaccompanied alien children,” said the initiative to prevent children from being trafficking in people or other types of exploitation .
According to government data, there are more than 600,000 migrant children who have crossed the border between the United States and Mexico without a legal guardian since 2019.
The initiative, according to the family source, claims to ensure that migrant children are not victims of human trafficking or victims of other forms of exploitation. The plan, which establishes four implementation phases, said that minors would receive a notice to appear in the Immigration or Deported Court, if deportation orders were pending against them.
ICE compiled data on unaccompanied minors and classified them into three groups: “flight risk”, “public safety” and “border security”. The agents were told to prioritize the children of “flight risk”, including those who received deportation orders by missing judicial hearings, said the source of the internal document.
The members of the Texas National Guard Guard are near the border wall between Mexico and the United States, as seen in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on January 14, 2025.
José Luis González/Reuters, Archive
The Trump administration movement occurs after the Republicans said last year that the Biden administration “lost 300,000” migrant children, a figure that experts and defenders say it lacks context.
The statements come from an internal DHS surveillance report last year that discovered that ICE had not complied with notices to look like more than 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children. The internal control agency warned that in the last five years, more than 32,000 unaccompanied migrant children did not appear for their immigration court hearings, and ICE “could not account” of all its locations.
“The unique needs of children require that the administration guarantee a level of attention that takes into account their vulnerability while determining whether they need long -term protection in the United States,” said Wendy Young, president of children who need defense. A statement to ABC News.
“To succeed in its objectives, the Government must be associated with legal services suppliers and the vast network of pro bono partners of the private sector that provide millions of dollars in free legal services to ensure that children understand the process and can share their reasons to seek security in the United States.
Reuters First reported the content of the internal ICE document.
