Immigration police arrest illegal immigrants who come to pick up children detained at the border

US Federal Immigration and Customs Officers have already arrested dozens of undocumented immigrants who wanted to take the children previously detained by the authorities. The Trump administration promised to go even further.

Фото: Depositphotos

This news confirms the worst fears of immigrants and their advocates. The Trump administration's recent move to strengthen screening efforts for all people who ask to care for undocumented and unaccompanied children in the U.S. is yet another way to track and arrest undocumented immigrants, it notes. CNN.

On Tuesday, Matthew Albbens, a senior immigration and customs officer, testified to Congress that after signing a memorandum of consent to “check” potential sponsors of immigrant children, the ICE arrested a man who had declared himself.

In response to a request from CNN, an ICE representative confirmed that 70% of these arrests were addressed to direct violators of immigration rules - which means they were arrested for illegal stay in the country.

The detainees could be parents or family members of the children mentioned, they could also be simply family members of adults who applied for child care, as they themselves are fighting for the legal right to stay in the United States. 12 arrests were criminal in nature.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed in response to concerns about cases in which children were in dangerous situations, as well as the inability of the US Department of Health to keep accurate records of the whereabouts of hundreds of children after their release. But experts and lawyers feared that the agreement on control and fingerprinting in ICE would scare away the potential sponsors of these children.

As of Thursday, more than 13 000 people are in US custody. The average duration of such a stay has almost doubled since 2016, to 59 days, and the level of exemptions is reduced by thousands of children every month. All this prompted the Department of Health to triple the size of a temporary camp opened in Texas at the height of the family separation crisis.

Undocumented children arriving in the country may be looking for a way to be near relatives who may already be living in the United States illegally by that time. The administration has described the process as a "circumvention of the law" to allow for more lenient policies on children, even labeling the process as "smuggling" of children.

But lawyers who represent the interests of underage immigrants say that many children are fleeing from extremely dangerous situations in their home countries and have the legal right to seek asylum, which may take years. Family and friends in the United States can provide them with a stable life and a permanent home.

The Ministry of Health does not consider the immigration status of a person as a factor in whether this person is suitable for childcare, and the Obama administration has not used the practice of arresting people who acted as sponsors. The Trump administration hinted that an opposite approach awaited immigrants, and Thursday’s news confirmed this concern.

Experts concerned about the interests of children warn that the help system was designed as a bridge for a traumatized child to a normal life in a situation where these children have the right to remain in the United States and seek asylum. And the activity of the authorities in this case contradicts the principles of caring for the welfare of children.

“These are children who fled the most violent countries in the world. Many of them have experienced trauma ... rape, robbery and all kinds of exploitation,” said Bob Carey, who led the HHS office of child welfare watchdogs during the Obama administration.

“How much harm are you causing by detaining children indefinitely in conditions that were never intended for this purpose?” he asks rhetorically.

In September, 2017, the then ICE director Tom Homan, announced that his agency would arrest unregistered people who had declared themselves to take care of children.

"You can't hide in the shadows," Homan said at a military event in Washington, adding that parents must stand "shoulder to shoulder" with their children in court. “We're going to bring the parents into the immigration process... Is that cruel?” I don't think so".

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