President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security is ripping all the guardrails off of the immigration system when it comes to children, The Atlantic reported in a deep analysis published Wednesday.
This follows the Biden administration’s effort to put protections in place, following the family separation scandal that took place under the first Trump administration.
“Six months into Trump’s second term, children are once again fair game, according to dozens of lawyers, advocates, shelter operators, case managers, and others I spoke with in recent weeks,” reported Stephanie McCrummen. “More systematically than in his first term, Trump’s administration is reaching into the federal immigration bureaucracy to roll back an array of protections for undocumented children, not only recent arrivals but also those who have only ever known life in this country. More and more, children are being picked up on family vacations, at traffic stops, and at worksites, and winding up in detention.”
The numbers are staggering, according to the report.
“At least 150 children have been sent to a newly reopened Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Dilley, Texas, whose staff sometimes refer to them as ‘inmates,’ according to two lawyers who visited recently. Another 2,400 children are currently stranded in the [Office of Refugee Resettlement] shelter system, a situation becoming more distressing to families by the day.”
Andrew Rankin, who practices immigration law in Memphis, had a blunt assessment: “The message is ‘We can take your children.’ The message is ‘We have the power.’ They want to scare the daylights out of people.”
The Trump administration has sought to put mass deportations into high gear, with the result that many people have faced little to no due process at all. The summary removal of Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a Salvadoran megaprison where he reported being tortured and abused, despite court orders preventing his removal to that country, are an ongoing matter of litigation.