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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is beginning to target unaccompanied immigrant children, pressuring them to accept cash payment in exchange for agreeing to be deported, according to a government memo to immigrant aid groups obtained by The Intercept.
The operation — which immigration rights advocates said was called “Freaky Friday,” though ICE denied the name — is a part of President Donald Trump’s ongoing mass deportation campaign. With deportation continuing apace amid the federal government shutdown, advocates speculated that the latest scheme to pay off immigrant children was deliberately timed by ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, to minimize public attention.
“The idea that masked men would now go to 14-year-olds and ask them to waive their rights to return to the countries that they fled is shocking.”The memo said immigrant children 14 years or older would receive $2,500 in exchange for agreeing to be deported.
“The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will provide a one-time resettlement support stipend of $2,500 U.S. Dollars to unaccompanied alien children, 14 years of age and older, who have elected to voluntarily depart the United States as of the date of this notice and moving forward,” said the memo, which was issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency that holds children in immigration custody.
Alarmed by word of the new operation, immigrant rights advocates began to widely circulate information about the plan in private email chains earlier this week.
“The idea that immigration enforcement agents can coerce children into waiving their rights and protections under this memo to meet President Trump’s political goals is cruel,” said Bilal Askaryar, director of communications at Acacia Center for Justice, which represents and advocates for unaccompanied immigrant children. “Americans have been shocked by the tactics that ICE is using in communities across the country, and the idea that masked men would now go to 14-year-olds and ask them to waive their rights to return to the countries that they fled is shocking.”
The government memo stipulated that children who elected to take the payment, must arrange to meet with an ICE officer. In order to waive their right to a removal hearing so that they can receive the payment, the child themself would have to sign a form to change their status with the U.S. government.
“If the child agrees to the stipend, DHS will issue a l-210 addendum declaration for the child to sign,” the memo says.
In a statement to The Intercept that was subsequently posted online, an ICE spokesperson confirmed that the agency would begin to target unaccompanied minors for deportation, calling the plan “voluntary.”
The agency said ICE and DHS “are offering a strictly voluntary option to return home to their families” and that financial support would only be provided at the approval of an immigration judge.
ICE told The Intercept the “voluntary option” would initially be offered to 17-year-old unaccompanied children.
The plan had been privately relayed to immigrant advocates earlier this week by what they said were sources inside the government. The advocates had gotten word that ICE was expected to target children aged 14 or older and was considering lowering the range to children as young as 10. For children who decline ICE’s offer, advocates said they had heard from sources that ICE agents would threaten the children as well as their relatives in the U.S. with detention.
The ICE spokesperson said, “Any payment to support a return home would be provided after an immigration judge grants the request and the individual arrives in their country of origin.”
According to emails sent by advocates, ICE agents are expected to track down and visit the children who arrived in the U.S. without their parents. Many live in shelters, with relatives, or with host families.
In the plan, according to advocates, agents would first target children who are currently in federal immigration detention, followed by those who have already been released from custody.
According to advocates, as soon as unaccompanied immigrant children turned 18, they would be detained by ICE. Immigrant children in federal government custody are held by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement.
By Friday afternoon, immigrant rights organizations and attorneys who were mobilizing against the operation began to receive emails and texts from the government about the deportation plan. Advocates have urged immigrants, especially children, not to sign any documents that attempt to threaten or incentivize children to waive their rights without first seeking legal advice.
In its statement to The Intercept, ICE declined to say whether children would be threatened with detention.
The Trump administration has shown a willingness to lock up unaccompanied children. Over Labor Day weekend, the government targeted 300 Guatemalan children for deportation, with agents hastily rounding up 76 of the children from their caregivers’ homes in the middle of the night and boarding many of them onto planes. A federal judge blocked their deportation hours before takeoff.
Many unaccompanied immigrant children also lack legal representation, largely due to budget cuts by the Trump administration.
In February, the Trump administration began to track the whereabouts of unaccompanied minors in the U.S. with the intent to deport them, according to a Reuters report. Then, in March, the administration cut a federally funded program that provided legal representation for minors in their immigration cases. The program supported more than 26,000 children, according to the University of California, Los Angeles, Latino Policy and Politics Institute.
From 2023 to 2024, the U.S. government received referrals for 93,356 unaccompanied children entering the country, mostly from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and El Salvador, according to government data.
The post ICE Targets Unaccompanied Immigrant Children, Offering Payment for Deportation appeared first on The Intercept.
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