“Sending children back without real safety plans is not ‘repatriation’—it is abandonment.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, CNN reported that the Trump administration is planning to return more than 600 unaccompanied Guatemalan children in federal custody back to Guatemala before their immigration cases are completed—or even begin. These children are currently in the care of the Department of Health and Human Services, and the plan would force them out of safety and into uncertainty.
In response, Gladis Molina Alt, Executive Director for the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights released the following statement:
“Sending children back without real safety plans is not ‘repatriation’—it is abandonment of the child and our nation’s commitments under U.S. and international law. The Trump administration is breaking the law by turning their backs on children who came here seeking protection. Every child in U.S. custody has the right to due process, to seek protection under current asylum law, legal counsel, and an individualized decision that hears their claim for protection first. To strip away those protections is to put children’s lives on the line. We will not stand by while the government treats children as political pawns instead of human beings with rights, voices, and futures.”
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The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights is a non-profit organization that protects and advances the rights and best interests of immigrant children and advocates for an immigration system that treats children as children first.