President Donald Trump’s deputies have reformed the Democrats’ 2008 “Unaccompanied Alien Children” (UAC) program to shrink migrant smuggling by labor traffickers and by illegal migrant parents.
“This is another big win,” said the Immigration Accountability Project. “It would mean fewer children handed over to sex or labor traffickers.”
But Democrat-affiliated pro-migration groups lament the reforms, which will require government officials to verify the legal or illegal status of people who volunteer to “sponsor” the many youth migrants who are welcomed across the border and housed in government-funded hostels.
“The real goal of this effort is … to use custody and care data on these children to track any undocumented adults supporting them,” complained Jeff Nesbit, a pro-migration deputy in President Joe Biden’s administration. “Sadly, Trump’s immigration enforcement team appears determined to use them as propaganda pieces of a larger — and ugly — political game,” he wrote on February 13.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025 ... c-program/
Trump Admin Reforms ‘Unaccompanied Alien Children’ Policy to Prevent Trafficking
Re: Trump Admin Reforms ‘Unaccompanied Alien Children’ Policy to Prevent Trafficking
President Donald Trump's administration is directing immigration agents to track down unaccompanied migrant children in the U.S., a source familiar with the plans told ABC News.
An internal document from Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE), headlined the "Unaccompanied Alien Children Joint Initiative Field Implementation," said the initiative claims to prevent children from being human trafficked or other types of exploitation.
There are more than 600,000 migrant children who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without a legal guardian or parent since 2019, according to government data.
The initiative, according to the source familiar, claims to ensure migrant children are not victims of human trafficking or victims of other forms of exploitation. The plan, which lays out four phases of implementation, said minors would be served a notice to appear in immigration court or deported -- if deportation orders were pending against them.
An internal document from Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE), headlined the "Unaccompanied Alien Children Joint Initiative Field Implementation," said the initiative claims to prevent children from being human trafficked or other types of exploitation.
There are more than 600,000 migrant children who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without a legal guardian or parent since 2019, according to government data.
The initiative, according to the source familiar, claims to ensure migrant children are not victims of human trafficking or victims of other forms of exploitation. The plan, which lays out four phases of implementation, said minors would be served a notice to appear in immigration court or deported -- if deportation orders were pending against them.
Re: Trump Admin Reforms ‘Unaccompanied Alien Children’ Policy to Prevent Trafficking
A federal judge in California on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to temporarily restore legal aid to tens of thousands of migrant children who are in the United States without a parent or guardian.
The Republican administration on March 21 terminated a contract with the Acacia Center for Justice, which provides legal services for unaccompanied migrant children under 18through a network of legal aid groups that subcontract with the center. Eleven subcontractor groups sued, saying that 26,000 children were at risk of losing their attorneys; Acacia is not a plaintiff.
Those groups argued that the government has an obligation under a 2008 anti-trafficking law to provide vulnerable children with legal counsel.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín of San Francisco granted a temporary restraining order late Tuesday. She wrote that advocates raised legitimate questions about whether the administration violated the 2008 law, warranting a return to the status quo while the case continues. The order will take effect Wednesday and runs through April 16.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-migran ... 0ff25e4a6e#
The Republican administration on March 21 terminated a contract with the Acacia Center for Justice, which provides legal services for unaccompanied migrant children under 18through a network of legal aid groups that subcontract with the center. Eleven subcontractor groups sued, saying that 26,000 children were at risk of losing their attorneys; Acacia is not a plaintiff.
Those groups argued that the government has an obligation under a 2008 anti-trafficking law to provide vulnerable children with legal counsel.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín of San Francisco granted a temporary restraining order late Tuesday. She wrote that advocates raised legitimate questions about whether the administration violated the 2008 law, warranting a return to the status quo while the case continues. The order will take effect Wednesday and runs through April 16.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-migran ... 0ff25e4a6e#