Trump Orders ICE to Track Down Unaccompanied Migrant Children
The Trump administration has directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to locate and track down unaccompanied migrant children who entered the U.S. illegally, expanding its deportation efforts, according to an internal memo reviewed by Reuters.
The memo, titled the Unaccompanied Alien Children Joint Initiative Field Implementation, outlines a phased approach, starting with planning on January 27. ICE has identified over 600,000 children who have crossed the border without parents since 2019, with more than 31,000 already ordered deported for missing court hearings.
ICE will classify children into three priority groups—“flight risk,” “public safety,” and “border security”—with agents instructed to focus on those deemed flight risks. These include children with deportation orders and those released to non-relative sponsors. The agency will serve them immigration court notices or enforce existing deportation orders.
The Department of Homeland Security and ICE have not commented on the directive. However, the memo states that the initiative aims to prevent human traff+cking and exploitation.
During Trump’s first term, his “zero tolerance” policy led to widespread family separations at the border, sparking international outrage. Though halted in 2018, up to 1,000 children remain separated from their parents, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, has claimed that 300,000 unaccompanied minors went missing under Biden’s administration, raising concerns about traff+cking. The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which oversees migrant children, is not required to track them after release.
Since taking office, Trump has tightened sponsor vetting, requiring fingerprints for background checks and expanding ICE’s access to ORR’s database. ORR head Mellissa Harper recently informed staff that DNA tests may be used to confirm familial relationships in suspected fraud cases.
ICE field offices will determine how to locate and process targeted children. As many live in undocumented households, their addresses could help ICE identify and arrest additional migrants.
