Immigrant Children Are Under Attack: Urge Congress to Demand Safety and Due Process


November 4, 2025

Since January 2025, the Trump administration has pursued new policies and funding reforms that put immigrant children and their families in harm’s way. Many immigrant children arrive in the United States alone, seeking protection from persecution and violence after facing abuse, abandonment, neglect, or human trafficking. For decades, bipartisan efforts like the Trafficking Victims Prevention Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) have prevented the return of these unaccompanied children to danger and promoted child welfare. Today, these safeguards–from legal representation and psychosocial services, to their very rights–are being stripped away.

The Trump administration is pursuing relentless attacks on unaccompanied children. 

Under the guise of “liberating” unaccompanied children from the scourge of trafficking, the administration has pursued a relentless agenda of undermining the very protections that keep children safe. The administration’s litany of actions targeting unaccompanied immigrant children have taken shape along three central fronts:

  • Prolonging the length of time children are forced to remain in government custody. The administration has pursued a series of policies making it much harder for children to be released from HHS custody to sponsors, with the average time in shelters stretching from 1 month to over 6 months. In addition, the administration has attempted to end longstanding Flores protections that prevent the detention of children in custody for longer than 20 days.  
      
  • Ramping up immigration enforcement against unaccompanied children and their families and attempting mass deportations to unsafe conditions. From requiring agencies responsible for child safety to share sensitive information with ICE for enforcement purposes to ending guidance that prevented ICE enforcement in schools, the administration has repeatedly targeted children in its increasingly indiscriminate enforcement efforts.  
      
  • Limiting due process and access to legal protections. Almost immediately upon taking office the administration eliminated access to asylum at the U.S. border, including for children and families. On day 1, Trump also indefinitely halted crucial humanitarian pathways like the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and the Central American Minors program, stranding thousands of unaccompanied refugee minors. In March, the administration attempted to terminate a federal program that provides legal representation to thousands of unaccompanied children, leaving some as young as two years old forced to represent themselves in immigration court proceedings. 

More recently, the administration has begun to escalate these attacks on children. Federal courts have so far repelled both a September effort to rapidly deport hundreds of Guatemalan children in the dead of night and an October plot to immediately transfer unaccompanied children  from children’s shelters to adult detention centers as soon as they turn 18. DHS is moving forward with a plan to coerce unaccompanied children into abandoning their legal rights to seek safety and “voluntarily” returning to their home countries. Read CWS’ statement about the plan here. 

Protecting children and preventing exploitation and harm must be a top priority. Join us in urging Congress to uphold immigrant children’s rights, promote their wellbeing, and defend them from the Trump administration’s attacks. 

Sample Email Script: “My name is [insert your name] and as a constituent of [Representative/Senator] from [City/Town] and [a faith leader/refugee leader/community member], I urge your office to uphold vital protections and due process for unaccompanied children. 

Many immigrant children arrive in the United States alone, seeking protection from persecution and violence after facing abuse, abandonment, neglect, or human trafficking. For decades, bipartisan efforts have prevented their return to danger and promoted child welfare. Today, these safeguards–from legal representation and psychosocial services to their very rights–are being stripped away. 

Specifically, I urge you to:

  • Stop the prolonged detention of unaccompanied children. The Trump administration has pursued a series of policies designed to detain children for longer in custody and make it much harder for sponsors to ensure the release of children from HHS shelters. I urge you to work to conduct oversight to ensure the administration is abiding by the legal requirement to ensure children are placed in “the least restrictive setting possible.”  
      
  • Ensure guardrails on immigration enforcement efforts targeting unaccompanied children and their families. Support legislation like the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act (H.R. 1061 /S. 455) that would prevent enforcement in schools, and pass firewall language that prevents the sharing of sensitive information collected by welfare professionals with ICE for enforcement purposes.
     
  • Defend every child’s right to due process. Support funding for legal services like the Unaccompanied Children Program (UCP) and integration services like Home Studies and Post Release Services (HSPRS). In ongoing funding negotiations, ensure that guardrails are in place to prevent humanitarian programs and funding from being co-opted by the administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.

Across the country and in schools, houses of worship, and courthouses in our community, immigrant children and their families are fearful that they will be randomly separated from one another and face rapid removal. I value due process and ensuring that the U.S. does not return people to the very harm they fled.   

Children who arrive in the U.S. without a parent or guardian need our care, protection, and support so that they can thrive and flourish. Thank you.”

Sample Phone Script: “My name is [insert your name] and as a constituent of [Representative/Senator] from [City/Town] and [a faith leader/refugee leader/community member], I am concerned that unaccompanied immigrant children and their families are being targeted by immigration enforcement and being put in harm’s way. 

I urge your office to do three things:

  • First, conduct oversight of immigration enforcement’s targeting of unaccompanied children and their families;
  • Second, support funding for legal services like the Unaccompanied Children Program (UCP) and integration services like Home Studies and Post Release Services (HSPRS); and
  • Third, ensure that guardrails are in place to prevent humanitarian programs from combining with enforcement.

In schools, houses of worship, and courthouses in our community, immigrant children and their families are fearful that they will be randomly separated from one another and face rapid removal. I value due process and ensuring that the U.S. does not return people to the very harm they fled.   

Children who arrive in the U.S. without a parent or guardian need our care, protection, and support so that they can thrive and flourish. Thank you.”

Sample Social Media Posts: 

  1. @legislator: Children fleeing danger have the right to seek protection. It’s on us to provide care, not punishment! #ProtectUnaccompaniedChildren
  2. @legislator: Let immigrant children thrive, not live in fear. Urge @DHSgov to stop targeting kids and their families! 
  3. @legislator: Immigrant children who have survived abuse, human trafficking, or neglect need the government to protect them, not punish them. Please support programs and policies that keep children safe!

Additional Resources: