The Trump administration is directing immigration agents to track down hundreds of thousands of migrant children who entered the United States without their parents, expanding the president’s mass deportation effort, according to an internal memo reviewed by Reuters.
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The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) memo outlines an unprecedented push to target migrant children who crossed the border illegally as unaccompanied minors.
It lays out four phases of implementation, beginning with a planning phase on January 27, although it did not provide a start date for enforcement operations.
More than 600,000 immigrant children have crossed the US-Mexico border without a parent or legal guardian since 2019, according to government data, as the number of migrants caught crossing illegally reached record levels.
Tens of thousands have been ordered deported over the same time frame, including more than 31,000 for missing court hearings, immigration court data show.
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The US Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not respond to a request for comment about the memo and the Trump administration’s plans.