US Senator warns of administration plan to hastily remove over 500
unaccompanied migrant children
[June 26, 2026]
By VALERIE GONZALEZ and REBECCA SANTANA
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Democratic U.S. senator warns the Trump
administration is getting ready to round up 500 immigrant children in a
hasty effort to remove them from the country, bypassing legal
protections. It would be their second attempt after a federal court
intervened last year in an overnight plan to fly out hundreds of
children on Labor Day weekend.
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote in a letter Wednesday to U.S. Health
Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that he had “credible information” that
the Trump administration had a list of more than 500 migrant children it
was targeting for a fast-track removal process and that the department
was racing to act in days. He warned that the administration was
abdicating “core humanitarian and child welfare mandates” and demanded
an immediate halt to any plans to remove the children.
Wyden, who is the ranking member and senior Democrat of the Senate
Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Office of Refugee
Resettlement, did not detail how he came by his information. His office
declined to provide further details. The ORR, which oversees the care of
unaccompanied migrant children, falls under the Department of Health and
Human Services.
An HHS spokesperson denied any such plans.
“The new information I obtained leads me to believe that the Department
is laying the groundwork for another lawless deportation effort, this
time on a greater scale, across more countries of origin,” Wyden wrote.
“You have been entrusted with the care and safety of the children placed
within the ORR network. Proceeding with this plan knowingly endangers
their lives and violates your duty to these vulnerable children.”
Trump administration made a similar attempt in 2025
Wyden also issued an early warning last August ahead of what eventually
became a chaotic weekend of efforts by the Trump administration to
remove Guatemalan children in its care and send them home.
HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said in “there are no plans to target
these children,” calling Wyden's claims ”irresponsible fearmongering."
“The Trump Administration is working to identify the parents or legal
guardians of unaccompanied alien children in our care because ensuring
every child is placed with a properly vetted sponsor is our top
priority,” she said.
Over the Labor Day weekend, dozens of migrant children either staying in
government-supervised shelters or with foster families were taken from
their homes and bused to airfields in Texas bound for Guatemala. A
federal judge woken up in the middle of the night eventually stopped the
planes. Lawyers for the children — many who had fled violence at home to
come to the U.S. — later described how traumatic the middle-of-the-night
removal effort was for them.
The administration insisted it was reuniting the Guatemalan children —
at the Central American nation’s request — with parents or guardians who
sought their return. Lawyers for at least some of the children said that
wasn’t true and argued that in any event, authorities still would have
to follow a legal process that they did not.
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Planes used for deportation flights sit at the Valley International
Airport, Aug. 31, 2025, in Harlingen, Texas. (AP Photo/Michael
Gonzalez, File)
Some of the children in the plane last year were represented by the
American Bar Association’s ProBar project. Lauren Fisher Flores, the
legal director, said children that day were seen “crying, praying,
vomiting” and some entered into a catatonic state. The effects were
long-lasting.
“One child was hospitalized for several days due to nerves. For
months, one young client refused to board buses for medical
appointments or court hearings. All the rules and laws that exist to
protect these children were unable to prevent them from experiencing
something deeply traumatic," Fisher Flores added.
Congress established legal protections for migrant children
Migrant children traveling alone are usually entrusted to U.S.
government care, and there are various legal protections designed to
protect them once they’re in the U.S. and navigating the immigration
system.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 is
one of the key pieces of legislation designed to protect them. With
some limited exceptions, it requires that children be placed in the
“least restrictive setting possible,” which generally means that
they can be released to a sponsor such as a relative in the U.S.
while their immigration proceedings play out.
The children can apply for a specially protected status if they
can’t return to their home country because of abuse or neglect and
they can also apply for asylum.
The Trump administration has made it increasingly difficult for
those children to be released to sponsors though. The administration
says that they are doing due diligence to make sure that sponsors
are thoroughly vetted and that in the past, children were released
into dangerous situations.
But advocates say that the result has been children lingering for
months in government shelters.
This time, Wyden said the children at risk of being removed come
from various countries, potentially including Guatemala, Honduras,
El Salvador, and Afghanistan, and have been in U.S. custody — mainly
in foster care — for at least 180 days. He said they were described
as not having any “viable sponsor" who could come forward and take
care of them in the U.S.
Not having an identified sponsor could mean the child's parents are
in their home countries, are deceased or are too afraid to claim
their children after ICE started arresting some parents who are not
in the country legally during their reunification efforts.
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