Stand with ICS Against Family Separation
In his second term, President-Elect Donald Trump has vowed to ruthlessly target immigrants who are already contributing members of society and prevent new immigrants from arriving. One cruel tactic he has promised to repeat: family separation.
Previously, the Trump Administration sought to limit immigration by criminally prosecuting all adults coming across the border without documentation. Parents were separated from their children, who were treated as unaccompanied minors and transferred to shelters nationwide. The Trump Administration relentlessly pursued deportation of unaccompanied children, who often faced judges without legal representation. Without legal defense, these children are deported in 9 out of 10 cases.
More than 5,000 families were forcibly separated from their families during the Trump Administration. Despite court orders to reunite the families, the Trump and Biden Administrations failed to do so entirely, and an estimated 1,400 families remain separated today.
“Many of these families arrived in the United States, seeking their legal right to claim asylum,” says ICS Executive Director Frank Garcia. “They were met with the most extreme cruelty instead, to have their families ripped away from them. To have their children disappear. We simply cannot allow this policy to be enacted again.”