FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Melissa Stek, communications consultant, melissa@mountgem.com
Tom Salyers, Director of Communications, tsalyers@clasp.org
Washington, DC, July 9, 2026—The Trump Administration is expanding its efforts to detain more immigrant children and families and deport them more quickly. Last week, the Texas Tribune reported on the administration’s plans to move immigrant children to Texas to disrupt their family reunification efforts and speed up their deportations. Just days later, the Associated Press reported on similar plans by the administration to open a 528-bed detention camp for children and families near an airport in Louisiana. As advocates for kids, members of the Children Thrive Action Network (CTAN) are deeply concerned by these plans.
For years, the United States promised to ensure that kids navigating the immigration system alone would be kept safe, protected from prolonged detention, and given a fair chance—but the Trump Administration is walking back these promises. We must keep our word to these children. Research repeatedly shows the harms of immigration enforcement and detention on children. Policymakers have an immediate opportunity to demonstrate their values and prioritize children’s well-being. We urge the administration, Congress, and collaborating state governments to do everything in their power to reverse course and protect all kids and families.
Wendy Cervantes, Director of Immigration and Immigrant Families at the Center for Law and Social Policy:
“We see this clearly for what it is. The Trump Administration is trying to hurt families and return children to the harms they fled. By making plans to jail kids and families in states like Texas and Louisiana, the administration is seeking to collaborate with allied state governments to be able to deport families more rapidly, in cruel conditions, and without any semblance of due process. President Trump has been chipping away at the laws that protect kids who flee to the U.S. seeking safety, now detaining and removing minors at three times the rate as during the final years of his first term. We must be a nation that protects all children without exception. We urge our elected leaders to do right by the kids in our care.”
Shaina Aber, Executive Director of the Acacia Center for Justice:
“Breaking laws that protect children, detaining kids longer than ever, and fast tracking their deportations in mass hearings violate our ideals as Americans. In fact, the Unaccompanied Children Program has enjoyed bipartisan support since the George W. Bush Administration. Despite the calculated attacks by the current administration, our network of children’s legal advocates is committed to standing with the youth they represent. They will not abandon their duty to their clients, nor violate their legal ethics. Children should not be used as pawns or mere numbers in a mass deportation campaign. Every child deserves someone in their corner, especially when the full might of the U.S. government is aligned against them exercising their rights to due process and protection.”
Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba, Executive Director of Children’s HealthWatch:
“The research is clear: Policies that detain children and separate families expose young children to toxic stress that can harm their health and development now and into the future. Plans to incarcerate more children and their parents and rush deportations will only deepen instability and trauma. Our nation must choose policies that keep children safe, healthy, and where they belong: together with their families in their communities.”
Gladis Molina Alt, Executive Director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights:
“No child should be uprooted, shuffled across the country, or rushed through immigration proceedings to serve a political agenda. We are witnessing deliberate efforts to dismantle the protections that Congress and the courts created for children who arrive in the U.S. without a parent, or those who are separated from their families during ICE operations. Relocating unaccompanied children to expedite deportations would treat vulnerable young people as obstacles to be removed rather than as children whose rights and well-being must be safeguarded. We are deeply concerned with any effort to limit children’s access to legal support or undermine their ability to exercise their right to seek protection. A government committed to protecting children would invest in independent legal services, family reunification, and due process—not policies that make it easier to deport children before they have a meaningful chance to present their cases under existing policies.”
Neha Desai, Managing Director of Children’s Human Rights and Dignity at the National Center for Youth Law:
“This new reporting should sound an alarm in Congress. Rapidly moving children and families into Texas and Louisiana to accelerate deportations will place vulnerable children at grave risk and further undermine family reunification. Even if the new Louisiana facility is intended for stays of less than 72 hours, experience gives us every reason for concern: Over the years, we have repeatedly seen children suffer serious harm after being held far longer than permitted in CBP facilities designed only for temporary processing. In March 2026 alone, 155 children were detained for more than 72 hours in CBP custody. Congress must act now to prevent the expansion of policies that we know will inflict lasting harm on children and families.”
Kristin Kumpf, National Coordinator of Free Families: The National Coalition to End Family and Child Detention:
“The Trump Administration’s efforts to speed up deportations of families and unaccompanied children—leading to more family separation and more children in detention—is unconscionable. While all immigrant detention is inhumane and unnecessary, it is particularly traumatizing for children, with lasting harms that persist long after release, including developmental delays, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicidal ideation. Childhood is a fleeting period of time that has a tremendous impact on setting the foundation for a person’s lifelong well-being—it must be protected.”
Trudy Taylor Smith, Senior Administrator of Policy and Advocacy at the Children’s Defense Fund-Texas:
“Let’s be clear: By moving unaccompanied migrant children and immigrant families to Texas and Louisiana to facilitate fast deportations without due process, the Trump Administration is trying to return children to situations where they are at risk of being trafficked, abused, or killed. Since last January, the administration has systematically dismantled basic protections from children in government custody and cut off immigrant children’s access to lawyers, while Congress has passed legislation that authorizes indefinite family detention and creates new barriers for unaccompanied immigrant children to reunite with family members outside detention. Our elected leaders cannot allow this to happen.”
Wendy Young, President of Kids in Need of Defense:
“No child should be deported from the United States without a full and fair opportunity to present their case for protection. Recent reports that the Trump Administration may open a facility in Louisiana to facilitate the deportation of unaccompanied children before their cases are adjudicated—coupled with reporting that children could be transferred across the country to unlicensed facilities in Texas, separated from their lawyers, and deprived of meaningful access to the legal process—represent a direct assault on the protections Congress established for these uniquely vulnerable children. A bipartisan anti-trafficking statute enacted nearly two decades ago ensures that unaccompanied children can seek humanitarian protection and are not removed without an individualized hearing before an immigration judge and a fair opportunity to be heard. The administration’s actions not only undermine those protections, but they also put children’s lives and safety at risk. Many unaccompanied children fled violence, trafficking, abuse, exploitation, and other serious harm in their home countries. Denying them access to counsel and rushing them through the system increases the likelihood that children with legitimate protection claims will be returned to the very dangers they escaped.”
