SAN ANTONIO — At least two adults and one child were detained by ICE outside of San Antonio immigration court on Tuesday. Immigration advocates said they noticed more minors showing up to immigration court alone, with no adults.
“There were a lot of unaccompanied minors and a lot of those minors were unrepresented and so I was a little concerned with watching them going into the court about what could potentially happen,” said Amanda Aguilar, a staff attorney for American Gateways.
Aguilar said she was noticed more minors showing up to immigration court hearings without their parents or an immigration attorney.
What’s the reason? Aguilar said it could be because parents are scared to come, or they may have already been deported.
“I’m not really sure if they even have a parent that could show up with them,” said Aguilar.
This comes at a time across the country when ice agents have been directed by the Trump Administration to increase deportations, that was a major part of President Trump’s election campaign.
It’s something Acting Ice Director, Todd Lyons said a lot of people favor.
“The American people want these public safety threats removed and that’s what ICE is dedicated to do right now,” said Lyons.
When making arrests, Aguilar said ICE attorneys and immigration judges can use discretion when choosing what cases to throw out and who to detain. She said it doesn’t seem coincidental that unaccompanied minors are being let go.
“They have someone to care for them in detention and there are obviously more safeguards for kids who are detained unaccompanied and so it would seem that O.P.L.A. attorneys, part of the criteria, would be maybe that there is a parent with them,” said Aguilar.
Aguilar also told us recent budget cuts have put a big dent in the number of nonprofit immigration attorneys that are available to represent these children.
“These huge funding cuts are leading to a lot of these kids showing up to court by themselves, unfortunately,” said Aguilar.
We reached out to the Department Of Justice to ask if there are different rules or protocols to detain unaccompanied minors, that department directed us to the Department Of Homeland Security, but we have not heard back.