A recent letter sent to area immigration attorneys has confirmed fears that the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are now expanding enforcement to target a younger demographic — including children as young as 10 years old.
According to immigration attorney Laura Rojas with Park City-based Wasatch Immigration Project, ICE is sending letters to children who previously passed through the Office of Refugee Resettlement, pressuring them to self-deport.
Rojas said the notices threaten “indefinite detention and immediate transfer to ICE upon age-out” if the minors do not waive protections under the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) and withdraw their applications for relief.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act is a series of federal laws designed to combat human trafficking and support survivors. The act aims to strengthen protections for vulnerable populations, including children; addresses forced labor in global supply chains; supports the screening and safe transfer of unaccompanied minors to the Department of Health and Human Services for care and potential asylum cases; and increases accountability by requiring annual reports on U.S. government actions against trafficking.
These regulations have historically protected children guarding their especially vulnerable position as minors. Rojas said that, aside from protecting kids, it keeps them out of immigration court, places them with USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) and provides a less adversarial path for immigration proceedings.
Through the act, the Office of Refugee Resettlement also places unaccompanied children into various care settings, including shelters, group homes and foster care, based on their needs.
The letters sent out by ICE contain an offer of $2,500 to return to their countries of origin.
“Children who do not comply with the ‘offer,’ the letter says their parents in the U.S. will be arrested,” Rojas said. “They want them to withdraw any applications they have for relief, such as Special Immigrant Juvenile status or asylum.”
As federal enforcement has become more aggressive throughout the country, advocates are emphasizing the need for a plan and the importance of all people to know their rights.
A recent ICE raid in Chicago left families, women, children and elderly outside of their homes in the middle of the night.
“They raided a building in the middle of the night in South Shore,” Governor of Illinois JB Pritzker said in an interview for CNN. “They were going after a few gang members, and instead, they broke windows, they broke down doors, they ransacked the place. And there were people that were held, I mean elderly people and children zip tied, elderly people held for three hours at a time.”
Rojas said that even early in the administration, officials conducted so-called welfare checks on children by knocking on doors — a practice that often frightened caregivers who might also have pending immigration cases. She believes the intent was less about the children’s well-being and more about enforcement.