Court Blocks Trump’s Migrant Child Detention Policy
A federal judge has issued a temporary injunction against a new policy from the Trump administration aimed at detaining migrant children beyond their 18th birthday. The ruling swiftly halts the planned transfers to adult facilities that advocates had indicated were set to occur this weekend. On Saturday, US District Judge Rudolph Contreras issued a temporary restraining order to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, prohibiting the detention of any child who arrived in the country alone and without permission in ICE adult detention facilities once they reach adulthood.
A judge in Washington, DC, determined that the automatic detention in question contravenes a court order he established in 2021 that prohibits such practices. ICE and the US Department of Homeland Security did not provide an immediate response on Saturday to emails requesting comment. The effort to detain new adults represents yet another confrontation regarding a highly sensitive aspect of President Donald Trump’s stringent immigration policy: the treatment of children who arrive at the border without adult supervision. Reports says that officials are providing migrant children aged 14 and older with USD 2,500 to voluntarily return to their home countries. Last month, a federal judge issued a ruling that halted efforts to swiftly deport Guatemalan migrant children who arrived in the US unaccompanied back to their country of origin. Some children had been placed on board planes during that late-night operation prior to a judge intervening. “All of these are pieces of the same general policy to coerce immigrant youth into giving up their right to seek protection in the United States,” said Michelle Lapointe, one of the groups that asked Contreras to intervene in a filing made just after midnight Saturday. Unaccompanied children are housed in facilities operated by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which operates independently of ICE.
Contreras’ 2021 order directed federal officials to release minors who reach the age of 18 from those shelters to the least restrictive setting available. He ruled that this is what is required by federal law, provided that the minor poses no danger to themselves or others and is not considered a flight risk. Minors are frequently placed into the custody of a relative, or potentially into foster care. However, attorneys representing unaccompanied minors reported that they received information in recent days indicating that ICE was informing shelters that children nearing their 18th birthday, even those with already-approved release plans, would no longer be permitted to leave and would instead be transferred to detention facilities, potentially starting as soon as Saturday. One email from ICE stated that the new adults could only be released by ICE under its case-by-case parole authority for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. Between March and September, ICE has granted parole to fewer than 500 individuals in total. The plaintiffs contended that release on parole is essentially ineffective and that children transitioning out of shelters would suffer enduring consequences from unwarranted and unsuitable adult detention in jails that could be overcrowded or situated in isolated areas. The plaintiffs asserted that this was particularly the case as some of the clients they referenced had experienced trafficking or had suffered abuse, neglect, or abandonment by their parents.
Since October 2021, US border authorities have apprehended children crossing the border unaccompanied by parents over 400,000 times. A law enacted in 2008 mandates that they must appear before an immigration judge prior to being sent back to their countries. Since the Trump administration increased scrutiny on children in government-run shelters, they have been spending more time there before being released to family in the United States to pursue their immigration cases. The heightened examination encompasses fingerprinting, DNA testing, and home visits conducted by immigration officers. During the summer months, immigration officers began appearing and apprehending parents. The average length of stay at government-run shelters for individuals released in the US was 171 days in July, a decrease from the peak of 217 days in April, yet significantly higher than the 37 days recorded in January, when Trump assumed office.
