Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon on Friday accused the Trump administration of planning to deport nearly 700 Guatemalan children who came to the United States alone, calling the move a violation of US obligations.
In a letter to Angie Salazar, acting director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Wyden warned that such expulsions would breach the agency’s “child welfare mandate and this country’s long-established obligation to these children.”
“Unaccompanied children are some of the most vulnerable children entrusted to the government’s care,” the Democratic senator wrote. “In many cases, these children and their families have had to make the unthinkable choice to face danger and separation in search of safety.”
Wyden cited whistleblowers who said children without a parent or legal guardian sponsor — or those lacking an asylum case already underway — “will be forcibly removed from the country.”
The plan, first reported by CNN, represents another step in the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration push, which has included surging officers to cities like Chicago, accelerating deportations, and ending legal protections for immigrants long allowed to live and work in the US. The White House and the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Advocates warned that deporting the children en masse could cause lasting harm. “This move threatens to separate children from their families, lawyers, and support systems, to thrust them back into the very conditions they are seeking refuge from, and to disappear vulnerable children beyond the reach of American law and oversight,” Wyden wrote.
Lindsay Toczylowski, president and CEO of Immigrant Defenders Law Center, told the Associated Press the plan was part of a broader assault on migrant rights. “We are outraged by the Trump administration’s renewed assault on the rights of immigrant children,” she said. “We are not fooled by their attempt to mask these efforts as mere ‘repatriations.’”
The issue comes amid Guatemala’s own efforts to return hundreds of minors from US custody. In July, Immigration Institute Director Danilo Rivera said Guatemala aimed to repatriate 341 children before they turned 18 to prevent them being sent to adult detention centers. President Bernardo Arvalo has called it a moral and legal duty, following meetings with US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
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With inputs from Associated Press