U.S. Plans to Deport Over 500 Unaccompanied Immigrant Children

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to deport more than 500 unaccompanied immigrant children, bypassing longstanding legal protections for migrant children who are in the U.S. without their parents. The children have been in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement for at least six months and don’t have family relatives or guardians who could sponsor them in the country. ORR, which is overseen by Health and Human Services, has aided the Trump administration in identifying children who could become targets for deportation. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden condemned the move in a letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., writing, “This is a severe institutional failure that places hundreds of vulnerable children in immediate jeopardy, effectively erasing them from the protection of U.S. oversight and thrusting them back into danger. To weaponize the very agency charged with their protection is an unacceptable escalation of executive overreach that undermines our nation’s commitment to due process.” www.democracynow.org