Florida launches operation to arrest more parents and guardians of unaccompanied migrant children

Locating undocumented migrants is one of the biggest challenges U.S. immigration authorities have faced in their attempt to increase arrests and subsequent deportations during this second Trump administration. An initiative in Florida, ostensibly aimed at ensuring the safety of migrant children, is intended to spearhead efforts to address this challenge and increase arrests. Last month, the UAC Safety Verification Initiative was launched in the Sunshine State, and the Department of Homeland Security hopes to expand it nationwide.

The measure means that local law enforcement will join Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in monitoring homes that have taken in children who entered the United States illegally. The DHS justifies the initiative as a fight against child trafficking and exploitation, but critics denounce it as a ploy by the administration to deport more people. The agreement intensifies the pursuit and arrest of undocumented migrants, as many of the minors’ sponsors lack legal status in the country.

The new alliance with law enforcement “represents ICE’s commitment to protect vulnerable children from sexual abuse and exploitation through collaboration with 287(g) law enforcement partners. The primary focus of this initiative is to conduct welfare checks on these children to ensure that they are safe and not being exploited,” the Department of Homeland Security statement said.

Migrant advocates, however, consider the safety of children to be merely a pretext, another offshoot of policies adopted to achieve the largest deportation in history. “There has been a lot of government reporting on unvetted sponsors and horrific cases of trafficking and abuse, but this seems like dishonest rhetoric,” says Mary Miller Flowers, director of policy and legal affairs at The Young Center, an organization that advocates for children.

The Department of Homeland Security cites 450,000 children who, it claims, were placed with sponsors during the Biden administration without proper vetting and provides examples of criminals arrested by ICE during home visits. One such case involves a Guatemalan man arrested in Texas for human trafficking and rape; the unaccompanied minor, a 14-year-old girl, was pregnant by her sponsor. Other cases point to crimes such as drug trafficking, domestic violence, and armed assault.

“Many of the children who came across the border unaccompanied were allowed to be placed with sponsors who were smugglers and sex traffickers,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

In the checks that have already been carried out by ICE, agents have detained people who were not criminals and whose only offense was being undocumented, leaving minors in a difficult situation. The Florida initiative anticipates an increase in the number of children who will be left without caregivers.

Experts acknowledge that cases of abuse and exploitation by sponsors can occur, but they say these are not common. When unaccompanied minors arrive in the United States, they are turned over to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, part of the Department of Health and Human Services. This agency looks for a relative or acquaintance willing to take them in, but they must pass several screening processes before being released to them. In many cases, the children are picked up by their own parents, if they are already in the country.

Since Trump’s crusade against immigration began, however, the administration has passed many measures that make it difficult for relatives to take custody of children. “The government has implemented policies that basically make it impossible for an undocumented person to sponsor a child,” Miller explains. One of these policies requires adults who want to take custody of children to declare their immigration status, leaving them vulnerable to deportation. The requirement to appear in person to pick up children, such as court appearances, has become a trap to detain them. There have been cases of children in custody asking their parents not to pick them up to avoid being arrested.

“We have the example of a girl who was traveling in a car with her friend and her friend’s family when ICE stopped them all. The girl was taken into custody. Her parents live down the street, but now they will have to go through this verification process, which includes DNA testing. It requires having formal employment documents and a U.S. ID, but most undocumented people don’t have the proper identification. Before, you could prove your identity with a foreign passport, but not anymore,” Miller explains.

HHS data shows that only 106 children were placed with guardians in October, a far cry from the more than 8,000 placed monthly at the end of Biden’s term. The time children now spend in Office of Refugee Resettlement facilities has skyrocketed. New rules have increased the average time in custody to nearly six months, up from 30 days last year.

The current situation has led to many children who have parents or relatives in the country being classified as minors who lack adequate sponsors and remaining in federal custody until they turn 18, at which age they can be transferred to ICE.

The prospect of being confined in a center, where conditions are inadequate for their physical and emotional well-being, creates a perfect breeding ground for children to prefer returning to the countries they fled. The Trump Administration is not only seeking to deport undocumented adults, but also wants to swell the list with minors. To that end, it has approved measures such as eliminating legal representation for children in immigration courts, where they must defend their asylum claims alone. Furthermore, they are offering children over the age of 14 who are in custody $2,500 to self-deport.

“It’s a perfect storm. You can’t talk to your family, you’re stuck in a federal detention center, and when you get to court, you don’t have legal representation. So if you’re 16 years old, you’ve been in custody for six months, and you don’t have a lawyer, $2,500 seems like a good option,” Miller points out. “That has nothing to do with child safety. It has to do with increasing the number of mass deportations and getting rid of these kids, because many of them have legitimate claims for protection, but they don’t even want to hear them,” she adds.

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