A newly discovered document reveals a
A newly discovered document, outlined last week in a federal court filing, threatens undocumented immigrant children in government custody with “prolonged” detention if they choose to exercise their legal rights rather than voluntarily leave the United States.
The document also says that children could face immigration consequences if they follow a legal path to remain in the United States by requesting to see a judge or expressing fear of returning to their home country. And it raises the possibility that they could be transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and potentially deported, if they turn 18 while in U.S. government custody.
And, significantly, it threatens arrest, deportation and possible criminal charges against a child’s sponsors (such as relatives, who typically remove children from government custody once they are examined by authorities) if the sponsors are undocumented.
The document misrepresents the law and threatens to undermine the legal rights of immigrant children to file immigration cases in the United States, according to the attorney who pointed it out. as part of a federal lawsuit.
It is unclear how widely the document has been distributed or, indeed, whether any children have directly received the information it contains.
But its content shows the extent to which the Trump administration will pressure immigrants (even children, who get additional legal protections) to leave the country “voluntarily,” abandoning in the process any legal effort to remain here legally.
The document is “quite alarming and disturbing,” said Suchita Mathur, a senior trial attorney for the American Immigration Council, one of the groups involved in the legal challenge against the Trump administration in which the filing arose. The challenge has to do with the administration’s recent practice of turning 18-year-olds into ICE custody once they leave the government’s network of shelters for unaccompanied immigrant youth.
Mathur told News themezone on Wednesday that the plaintiffs in the case had heard from Trump administration lawyers, who told them, “Our clients have informed us that the document is a CBP document,” referring to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“It is clearly part of the administration’s attempt to intimidate and intimidate youth from exercising their legal rights,” Mathur added. “While it is not surprising to see this administration use detention as a weapon to punish non-citizens, the thinly veiled threats and misinformation in the document against a particularly vulnerable population remain shocking.”
During the second Trump administration, children have spent months (compared to days or weeks in previous administrations) in government custody. Instead of being detained by ICE, undocumented immigrant children deemed “unaccompanied” are placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is located within the Department of Health and Human Services. ORR shelter styles vary: some are group homes while others are more like juvenile detention centers, but children in ORR custody they are generally not free to leave.
The HHS Administration for Children and Families, which houses ORR, did not respond to a request for comment. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson initially indicated in an email that he might comment on the filing, but ultimately did not do so.
He long stays in custody at ORR shelters are due in part to the administration’s new requirement that sponsors hoping to take custody of immigrant youth present certain specific identity documents and proof of income, increasing the risk that sponsors will interact with immigration agents and face arrest, detention, and possible deportation if they are undocumented. The administration is currently being sued about the process by which it issued those new rules to sponsors.
“These children are in an inherently coercive environment and are implicitly encouraged to give up their legal rights, without the guidance of an attorney,” said Neha Desai, managing director of children’s human rights and dignity at the National Youth Law Center, one of the groups suing the administration over the new requirements for sponsors.
“The current administration has repeatedly demonstrated, in increasingly disturbing ways, that it is willing to ignore protections established decades ago by a bipartisan Congress and endanger children’s lives for political gain.”
On Nov. 11, a staff member at a shelter for unaccompanied immigrant youth shared the document with attorney Marie Silver of the National Immigrant Justice Center, an organization that provides legal services to youth in the shelter. The guidance was among charging documents related to a child housed at the shelter.
Since then, “shelter staff have informed us that more children have arrived with this document in their paperwork,” Silver said in an email Thursday. News themezone has not been able to confirm the extent of the document’s use.
Silver marked the document as part of ongoing litigation in federal district court in Washington, DC, over the Trump administration’s recent practice of transferring “ageing out” children from these shelters directly into ICE custody when they turn 18. (NIJC is among the groups suing over this practice.)
The judge in that case issued a temporary restraining order directing the administration to comply with a 2021 ruling that authorities consider the “least restrictive environment available” for children aging out of ORR custody. The administration has responded saying that those teens should be subject to the same new mandatory detention policy that has been applied to undocumented people across the country, with rare exceptions for “urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.”
“This notice completely misrepresents, or at least dramatically misrepresents, the immigration laws that apply to unaccompanied immigrant children,” Silver wrote in the document.
“You have been identified as an unaccompanied minor,” the document reads. “This information is intended to provide clarity on next steps.”
The document goes on to state that if an unaccompanied immigrant child (referred to by the government as “UAC” or “unaccompanied alien children”) voluntarily returns to their country of origin “within 72 hours,” there will be “no administrative consequences and they will still have the opportunity to apply for a visa, through legal means, in the future.” This is in line with the administration’s position (often misleading) attempts to pressure undocumented people to leave the United States and abandon any ongoing legal efforts to stay here.
If the child seeks a hearing with an immigration judge, or indicates fear of returning to their home country, which may trigger additional protections, the document says they can “expect the following”:
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He will be detained in the custody of the United States Government for an extended period of time.
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If your sponsor in the United States does not have legal immigration status, you will be subject to arrest and removal from the United States. The sponsor may be subject to criminal prosecution for aiding your illegal entry.
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If you cannot substantiate your claim of fear of returning to your country, you may be prohibited from legally applying for a visa.
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If you turn 18 while in US government custody, you will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for removal (deportation) from the United States. This may result in you being prohibited from applying for a visa in the future.
You can read the document below (scroll to the end):
Silver wrote that he believed the document “will cause significant distress and confusion among unaccompanied immigrant children, who are detained by immigration officials alone without their parents, and who are often survivors of violence and trauma.”
Given that stress, he continued, children might be so afraid of the government’s “consequences” that they won’t be able to exercise their rights, in the form of seeking asylum or other protections from deportation.
“The result for those children will be a rapid, extrajudicial return, alone, to countries where they face serious risks to their safety and well-being, including abuse, neglect, domestic violence, human trafficking, and even death,” Silver wrote.
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