Children Used As Bait
To Abduct Caregivers
From
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/jun/05/trumps-immigration-children-unaccompanied-minors
Trump’s unprecedented immigration crackdown
is leaving children terrified and ‘truly alone’
Advocates say unaccompanied minors
are being detained longer and used as bait
to arrest those who care for them
A 10-year-old girl showed up for a routine check-in about her immigration case – and agents cuffed and detained her mother on the spot. A 14-year-old boy was shaken out of bed at 6am when plainclothes officers showed up, unannounced, at his door for what the agents claimed was a “wellness check.” A 17-year-old girl has been detained for months with her newborn baby due to new restrictions on who can sponsor unaccompanied minor immigrants.
Hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied children have arrived at the US southern border in recent years, seeking refuge. The Trump administration is now targeting them – and their caregivers – for deportation.
In the past few months, the administration has enacted a series of punitive policies to expedite the removal of unaccompanied minors and strip them of legal representation. It has attempted to tear down the basic rights and protections for children under the government’s care, while simultaneously issuing new restrictions on who can take custody of them – leaving children to languish in detention.
In several troubling cases across the US,
advocates say the children are being used as “bait”
to arrest and deport the adults around them.
Taken together, advocates and lawyers say the changes represent a terrifying new strategy in the government’s crackdown on immigrants, designed to instill fear and chaos in families.
“The level and intensity of the attacks on children that we’re seeing currently is unprecedented in my legal career, which has spanned over 10 years,” said Marion Donovan-Kaloust, director of legal services at the Immigrant Defenders law center (ImmDef). “It’s not just one thing – it’s a concentrated attack on children from so many different angles. And it’s really shocking to the conscience.”
Children who come to the US without their parents – classified as “unaccompanied minors” by the government – have always been among the most vulnerable people navigating the US immigration system. Some, fleeing poverty, war, gangs, violence or environmental catastrophes in their home countries, have made the journey alone. Others become separated from their parents or guardians along the way.
During Joe Biden’s administration, when record numbers of children were arriving at the southern border, human rights advocates and internal government monitors raised alarms that children were held in overcrowded, jail-like facilities. Now, Donovan-Kaloust said, the Trump administration is attempting to strip these children of basic human rights and legal protections – exposing them to harm and isolating them from loved ones and lawyers who can advocate for their needs.
“Our team works with unaccompanied children every day who are detained, and we’re seeing an incredible increase in just the emotional distress that the children are expressing,” said Donovan-Kaloust. “They’re talking about how they’re not able to sleep, not able to eat. They’re crying a lot, unable to participate in attorney-client meetings.”
Maria’s Arrest In Front Of Her Daughter
In Santa Paula, California, one family experienced the compounding consequences of the administration’s new policies.
Maria, the primary caregiver and sponsor for her 10-year-old daughter who had arrived in the US as an unaccompanied minor, didn’t have any legal status in the US. But she had submitted all the required documents to show that she was a safe caregiver, provided fingerprints and opened her home up for vetting from officials at the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).
On 2 April, she took her daughter in for a routine check-in at a nearby immigration office. Agents arrested her on the spot. “They arrested her in front of her 10-year-old,” said Primitiva Hernandez, the Executive Director of 805 UndocuFund – a nonprofit that has been helping the family navigate their immigration cases.
Within hours, Maria was transferred to a detention center in Otay Mesa – nearly five hours away. When volunteers from 805 UndocuFund realized what had happened they rushed to help Maria’s mother, Lilia, drive over to the immigration office and pick up her granddaughter. Lilia also took custody of Maria’s two-year-old son.
The Guardian is not printing the women’s last names, or naming the children, in order to protect their safety and privacy.
After Maria’s arrest, things took a turn for the worse. Lilia’s case for asylum in the US was denied, and she was told to return to Mexico immediately. “I have to leave, because if I don’t leave, they’ll come looking for me,” Lilia said in a video message she shared with the Guardian. Her granddaughter was already distraught after seeing her mother cuffed, and whisked away by agents. Immigration and Customs Enforcement knew where she lived – she didn’t doubt they’d come knocking.
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