10/16/18 Under a new Trump Administration policy, family members who come forward to claim unaccompanied minors can now be arrested and deported if they are here illegally. Vetting sponsors has always been predicated on protecting children, not policing sponsors; in the past, officials from the Department of Health and Human Services made a point of stressing their independence from the Department of Homeland Security. “O.R.R. is not a law-enforcement entity” Robert Carey, the former head of the office, told me. “It’s a social-service provider.”
Now, according to advocates, the Trump Administration is manipulating the mission of the O.R.R. “They’ve flipped their mandate from the children’s welfare to immigration enforcement” Jennifer Podkul, the policy director of Kids in Need of Defense, told me. Key Words: ICE, DHS
