Trump Administration Aims to Bring Back Detention Centers for Immigrant Kids
The move to use jail-like facilities to hold children comes as the administration also rolls back legal services offered to unaccompanied minors.
Unaccompanied immigrant minors waited to be processed by Border Patrol agents after they crossed the Rio Grande into south Texas in 2021.
Photographer: John Moore/Getty ImagesThe Trump administration is seeking to bring back juvenile detention centers for unaccompanied immigrant children, just as a critical contract providing legal services to these minors who enter the US without their parents is in jeopardy.
A request for information published this week said that the federal government is looking to solicit bids for beds in so-called “secure” facilities to detain teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17. The move comes as the administration is separately rolling back a program that ensures unaccompanied children receive legal representation when maneuvering the complex and backlogged US immigration court system, according to the groups that provide these services. The changes are still in flux, and the contract must be extended before the end of the month.