'Welfare Checks' by ICE Leave Dozens of Migrant Youth Without Homes
Visit by agents spark fear, lead to family separations and detentions.
WASHINGTON — More than a hundred unaccompanied migrant children have been displaced from their homes and placed in federal custody over the past two months following unannounced “welfare checks” conducted by immigration authorities, according to a U.S. official speaking anonymously.
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The FBI and ICE have launched a campaign of unannounced visits to the homes of undocumented children. While the government defends these visits as anti-trafficking measures, advocates argue the true purpose is to identify and deport undocumented immigrants, both children and adults.
“These welfare checks are planting fear, panic, and confusion among children and family members around the country,” said Jason Boyd, vice president of federal policy for Kids in Need of Defense (KIND). “Numerous minors have been subjected to deportation proceedings after such checks, which are by definition a tactic of migratory control.”
Typically, four to six plainclothes agents—some armed—arrive unannounced to question minors and their sponsors. The inquiries often extend to sensitive information such as schooling, employment, and family ties.
In Hawaii, a sponsor named Juan, whose niece crossed the border alone several years ago, said ICE agents came looking for them. “I have no peace,” he told the Honolulu Civil Beat. His niece no longer attends school, and the family now spends their days away from home in fear of further action.
Boyd noted that several minors his organization supports now fear attending school or court dates, worried that contact with official institutions might expose them or their families to deportation.
Advocates also point to the chilling effect on potential sponsors. “They want to instill fear so that the community becomes distressed and says, ‘Oh my God, if we sponsor a minor, they’re going to come to our house, find the undocumented people and deport us!’” Gladis Molina, executive director of The Young Center, a nonprofit supporting unaccompanied children, told El País.
One of the children under The Young Center’s care was relocated from Hawaii to a detention center in California after their sponsor was deported. The child, originally from Honduras, was returned to the same detention facility they had left over a year earlier.
Rather than being placed in state-run facilities for minors, children whose sponsors are detained are often sent back to federal migrant detention centers, Molina said.
The Department of Health and Human Services responded in a post last month on X:
A senior official cited a case in Cleveland where a man posed as a 14-year-old girl’s brother to smuggle her from Guatemala. His identity went unverified, and he was later convicted of sexually assaulting the child. While trafficking and abuse are risks, advocates insist such cases are rare and should be intercepted before children are placed with sponsors—not used to justify broad enforcement.
The crackdown on unaccompanied minors has intensified through multiple channels. Legal aid for children in immigration court has been cut, leaving approximately 26,000 without representation. A judge ordered some funding to remain in place, but uncertainty looms as current support is only guaranteed through September.
Children face longer waits in shelters due to tightened sponsorship requirements. The average stay in federal custody under the Office of Refugee Resettlement exceeded 200 days in April, up from 64 days just six months prior.
The psychological toll is mounting. “Children lose hope for reuniting with their loved ones in the United States and getting a fair chance for seeking legal protection,” Boyd told El País. “That despair has led, in many cases, to children voluntarily leaving the United States and returning to their countries of origin, despite the dangers they face there.”
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