This short sad report from a Minneapolis teacher writing int EdWeek:
He carries his U.S. passport everywhere now, tucked in his pocket, transferred from his jeans to his school uniform and back again, refusing to let it out of his sight even in my classroom. He’s been stopped twice on his walk home from work by masked men and women in unmarked cars, demanding he prove his right to exist in the country where he was born.
His parents haven’t left the house in over a week for fear of being stopped by immigration agents, which means someone has to work. At 17, that someone is him. After school every weekday and all day on weekends, every week, because the bills don’t stop.
More about child safety and the enforcement system in Read More:
Several sets of recent information highlight egregious family separations and deportations, both from the formal “zero‑tolerance” era and ongoing cases.
Legacy of “zero‑tolerance” family separation
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Under the Trump administration’s 2018 “zero‑tolerance” border policy, more than 5,000 children were forcibly separated from their parents at the U.S.–Mexico border, often including babies and toddlers taken from parents’ arms with no tracking system to reunite them.
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A 2024 Human Rights Watch report finds that as many as about 1,360 children—nearly 30% of all known separated children—may still remain separated from their parents six years after the policy, because of poor tracking, deportations, and families scattered across countries.
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Internal investigations found that in June 2018 “no centralized system existed” to identify, track, or reconnect separated families; Border Patrol used ad‑hoc workarounds and codes, leaving many children effectively disappeared within federal systems.
Court findings and settlement details
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In the ACLU’s Ms. L v. ICE case, a federal court issued a nationwide injunction in June 2018 that found the separations unconstitutional and ordered the government to identify and reunite families.
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A 2023 settlement in that case bars the federal government from reenacting the zero‑tolerance family‑separation policy for eight years and provides some benefits (e.g., potential immigration relief and services) to thousands of separated families, but advocates emphasize that the harm to children is “irreversible.”
Ongoing separations linked to detention and deportation
Even after “zero‑tolerance” formally ended, new separations continue to occur through arrests, detention, and deportations:
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A 2025 report described parents in the U.S. apprehended by ICE in front of their children, with kids left behind in the U.S. while a parent is detained for months and then deported, forcing families to choose between splitting up or sending children (including U.S. citizens) back to dangerous conditions.
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In Florida, a father with refugee‑seeking family members was arrested at gunpoint in front of his 3‑ and 5‑year‑old children, detained at the Broward Transitional Center for three months, and ultimately chose deportation to Venezuela while his wife and children remained in the U.S. due to fear of persecution if they returned.
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Another case involved a Nicaraguan father detained at Krome Detention Center after an ICE appointment and later deported; his young children in Florida reportedly became physically ill and stopped eating after witnessing his arrest and losing daily contact with him.
Current concerns about child safety in the enforcement system
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A 2024 Human Rights Watch review concludes there has been “zero accountability” for senior officials who designed family separation policies, and that the government still lacks fully transparent safeguards to prevent future large‑scale separations.
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Congressional hearings in 2024 documented ongoing risks to migrant children—trafficking, exploitation, and children going missing—within the broader U.S. immigration and child‑welfare response at the border.
#ICEraids #AbolishICE #ImmigrationJustice #ChildTrauma #TraumaInformedSchools #StudentSafety #KeepFamiliesTogether #Minneapolis #SchoolsNotPrisons
INVISIBLE CHILDREN / KARA / KIDSATRISKACTION
