By Marisa Taylor, Ted Harson and Christina Cook
Washington (Reuters) – The Trump Administration directs immigration agents to track hundreds of thousands of children migrants who have entered the United States without their parents, expanding efforts to massive the president’s mass deportation, according to Reuters, reviewed by Reuters.
The Memorandum of Immigration and Application of Customs outlines an unprecedented impetus to direct migrant children who illegally crossed the border as unaccompanied minors. It determines four phases of implementation, starting with a planning phase on January 27, although it does not provide a start date for implementation operations.
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More than 600,000 immigrant children have crossed the US -Mexico border without a parent or a legal guardian of 2019, according to government, as the number of migrants caught crossing illegally, reaching record levels.
Tens of thousands have been ordered over the same period of time, including over 31,000 for missing court hearings, according to the Immigration Court.
The US Department of Interior and ICE did not respond to a request for a comment on the Trump Administration and plans.
During his first term, Trump introduced a policy of “zero tolerance”, which led to the separation of children migrants from their parents at the border. The children were sent to children’s shelters managed by the Refugee Resettlement Service (ORR), a state agency placed in the Ministry of Health and Human Services while their parents were detained or deported.
The separation of families, including nursing babies, was met with widespread international outrage. Trump stopped politics in 2018, although up to 1000 children can still remain separated from parents, according to Lee Gellern, the leading lawyer of the US Union for Civil Liberties in a related legal challenge.
In addition to the implementation of immigration laws, the note heads “the joint implementation of the field of initiative without escorts of alien children,” said the initiative aims to ensure that children are not victims of human trafficking or other forms of service.
According to the children’s note, a notice will be served to appear in the immigration court or to be deported if they are suspended for deportation orders.
In the note, Ice said he had collected data from a number of sources of unaccompanied minors and had sorted them into three priority groups, “Flight Risk”, “Public Safety” and “Border Security”.
He directed agents to focus on children considered “flight risks” – including the ordered for missing court hearing and those published by sponsors who are not blood relatives.
The agency uses several databases and government records to track the goals.
DNA tests
According to the law, migrants who have exhausted their legal capabilities to remain can be removed, even if they are children. But the US government has limited resources and usually gives priority to the arrest of adults with criminal records.
Unacconditioning children began to arrive in a large issue of decade ago because of violence and economic instability in their countries – and immigration policies in the United States, which allowed them to enter and often stay.
The majority are from Central America and Mexico. Some migrated to join the parents who are already in the United States; Many traveled with family members or smugglers.
From Orr’s arrest, children are released to sponsors, usually parents or relatives, as immigration authorities weigh their affairs to stay in the country.
Trump’s border king Tom Homan has repeatedly claimed that about 300,000 unaccustomed children have disappeared during Biden’s presidency and are at risk of traffic and operation. Beyond the initial subsequent calls, Orr was not obliged to track the location of the children after leaving the arrest. Many are now adults or live with their parents.
The individual offices of the ice fields will determine “how best to find, to make contact and to serve immigration documents, as is suitable for separate purposes when conducting actions for application”, including unaccompanied children, the note said.
As children often live in adult households without permission to be in the United States, their addresses can also help enhance their total number of arrests.
During his first administration, Trump used data collected to check sponsors of unaccompanied children to direct them to arrests.
Since taking office on January 20, Trump has taken steps to tighten the sponsors.
These include a requirement from sponsors and adult household members to submit fingerprints for background checks, according to management last week.
The Trump administration has also expanded its access to the database of children and their Orr sponsors, two sources familiar with the question said.
Melissa Harper, a former ICE employee who is now heading Orr, told a staff meeting on Thursday that the agency plans to use DNA tests to establish family relations, said one of the sources. It was unclear whether DNA tests would only be used in cases that raise a red flag or routine.
Harper told the meeting that ICE is pursuing 247,000 tips related to fraud, traffic and smuggling of unaccompanied minors and referring cases to the FBI for a further investigation, the person said.
(Report from Marisa Taylor and Ted Harson in Washington, Colombia and Christina Cook in San Francisco; Edit by Mary Millik and Susan Goldenberg)