WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration plans to eliminate Guatemalan children who came to the United States without parents, according to a letter sent Friday by Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden.
The removal would violate the “child welfare obligations and the country’s long-standing obligations to these children” of the Refugee Resettlement Office,” Wyden told Angie Salazar, acting director of the office within the Department of Health and Human Services. I’m in charge of immigrant children Who will arrive in the United States alone?
“Unaccompanied children are some of the most vulnerable children left to government care,” the Democrat senator wrote, calling for a plan to expel the country. “In many cases, these children and their families had to make unthinkable choices to face danger and separation in search of safety.”
Citing an unidentified whistleblower, Wyden’s letter stated that children who do not have parents or legal guardians as sponsors, or who do not have an already-in-progress asylum case, will be “forced to remove from the state.”
This is another step in the Trump administration’s fundamentals Immigration enforcement effortsIncluded Plans to rapidly increase executives to Chicago Intensify deportation to suppress immigrants End Protection For those who live and have permission to work in the United States.
The White House and the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the latest move originally reported by CNN. The Guatemalan government declined to comment.
“The move threatens to leave children with their families, lawyers and support systems to return to the very conditions they are seeking evacuation, and to eliminate vulnerable children out of reach of American law and surveillance,” Wyden’s letter says.
Their treatment is one of the most sensitive issues in immigrants, as young ages and unaccompanied immigrant children often experience reaching the United States. Advocacy groups have already called on courts to suspend the new Trump administration Review procedures for unaccompanied childrensays change has separated families for longer and is inhumane.
In July, the government was the head of the Guatemala immigration department. You are about to repatriate any minor of your 341 companions Someone was detained in a US facility.
“The idea is to bring them back before they reach 18 so that they don’t get taken to an adult detention center,” said Danilo Rivera, director of the Guatemala Immigration Institute. He said it would be done at Guatemala’s expense and would become a form of voluntary return.
The plan was announced by President Bernardo Arevalo. He said the government has a moral and legal obligation to advocate for children. His comments came a few days after us Homeland Security Secretary Christi Noem visited Guatemala.
Migrant children traveling without parents or guardians are handed over to the refugee resettlement office when officials along the US-Mexico border encounter. Once in the US, they often live in government teacher shelters or with foster families.
They can request asylumjuvenile immigration status or visa for victims of sexual exploitation.
The idea of repatriating many children to their home countries has raised concerns among activists working with children navigating the immigration process.
“We are furious at the Trump administration’s new attack on the rights of immigrant children,” said Lindsay Tozzirowski, president and CEO of the Immigration Defenderslow Center. “We are not fooled by their attempts to hide these efforts as merely ‘deportations.’ This is another calculated attempt to cut off most of the due process remaining in the immigration system. ”
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Gonzalez was reported from McAllen, Texas. Associated writer Sonia Perez D. Guatemala City and Tim Sullivan of Minneapolis contributed to this report.
