BREAKING: ICE Hunts Children in Twisted 'Freaky Friday' Operation

Operation targets unaccompanied children as young as 14 — with threats, bribes, and family arrests if they refuse to self-deport.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has unleashed its most chilling immigration crackdown yet: a nationwide ICE operation called “Freaky Friday” targeting unaccompanied migrant children.

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Beginning Friday, Oct. 3, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are hunting children as young as 14 — with internal documents suggesting the age floor could soon drop to 10. The sweep applies to both minors currently detained and those previously released into U.S. communities.

According to materials reviewed by Migrant Insider, children caught in the dragnet will be forced to choose between two impossible options:

• Sign away their rights under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), withdraw applications for relief, and accept deportation — or face “indefinite detention” and transfer to ICE custody as soon as they turn 18.

• Accept a cash payment of $2,500 to self-deport.

If they refuse, ICE threatens to go after their parents and family members living in the U.S. “This is state-sponsored extortion of kids,” one immigrant rights attorney told Migrant Insider. “Children are being told: either abandon your case or watch your parents get arrested.”

The plan anticipates legal challenges but moves forward anyway — another calculated escalation by an administration bent on mass expulsions. For years, Trump has railed against the TVPRA, which guarantees basic legal protections to unaccompanied minors. Now, by dangling cash and threatening families, his government is effectively coercing children into signing away rights Congress enacted precisely to shield them from exploitation.

Legal service providers nationwide are scrambling to respond. Advocacy memos recommend Know Your Rights sessions inside detention centers, filing L-3 forms for children in custody, and documenting the coercive delivery of ICE’s “threat letters” to strengthen legal challenges.

Trump officials privately admit the goal is sweeping: detain all “age-outs” — children who turn 18 in government custody — and shut down their legal pathways before they can see a judge.

“This is cruelty for cruelty’s sake,” said a senior congressional aide briefed on the plan. “Targeting children — threatening their parents — offering them cash to give up safety — this is not immigration enforcement. It’s blackmail.”

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