Padilla, Durbin Call for Oversight Hearings After Whistleblower Report Alleges Trump Admin Lied About Safety of Unaccompanied Guatemalan Children to Deport Them

Call comes ahead of a Subcommittee hearing on Biden's management of unaccompanied children, despite the Trump Administration's ongoing flagrant disregard for unaccompanied child safety

WASHINGTON, D.C. - After a whistleblower disclosure alleged that the Trump Administration concealed information about the safety of dozens of unaccompanied Guatemalan children they tried to deport in the dead of night, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, and Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, are requesting an oversight hearing on the Office of Refugee Resettlement's (ORR) mass child deportation efforts and apparent lies under oath.

The urgent call for a hearing comes after the disclosure alleged that at least 30 of 327 unaccompanied Guatemalan children the Administration attempted to deport without due process "have indicators of being a victim of child abuse, including death threats, gang violence, human trafficking and/or have expressed fear of return to Guatemala." The disclosure contradicts Acting ORR Director Angie Salazar's sworn statement under penalty of perjury that these children had been screened for removal to ensure they would not face child abuse or human trafficking in Guatemala. ORR's criteria for removal, according to Salazar, explicitly specify that children do not "have indications of child abuse/neglect perpetrated by a parent/legal guardian" or "indications of being a victim of trafficking." The data on these children was present in ORR's database at the time of Salazar's statement.

Over Labor Day weekend, the Trump Administration attempted to unlawfully remove dozens of unaccompanied Guatemalan children from the United States in the middle of the night. After a September 10 hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy J. Kelly extended a preliminary injunction to block the Administration from removing the children until September 16. The injunction is in place until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, September 18.

"The allegations in the whistleblower complaint are shocking. If the Administration indeed misled the courts to justify deporting unaccompanied children who, by their own standards, should never have been on that list in the first place, that is inexcusable," said Senator Padilla. "Sending children back into danger is a betrayal of our moral and legal obligations. We're going to hold those responsible accountable for endangering children, starting by putting them on the record in the Senate."

"I am deeply disturbed by the whistleblower allegations that the Trump Administration misled the courts to justify deporting unaccompanied children at risk of trafficking and abuse. Protecting children should be a bipartisan issue. When I was Chair of this Committee, I held a hearing with Biden Administration officials who oversaw unaccompanied children," said Senator Durbin. "I call on Chairs Grassley and Cornyn to do the same and hold an oversight hearing with Administration officials so that we can get to the bottom of this issue in a bipartisan fashion."

Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), unaccompanied children are generally afforded the opportunity to appear before an immigration judge before they can be removed. However, the Guatemalan children the Trump Administration suddenly targeted did not have this opportunity - likely violating the TVPRA - and the Administration failed to explain to them why their immigration court cases were taken off the docket.

Many of these children and their families strongly objected to their return to Guatemala. In fact, a majority of Guatemalan families contacted explicitly expressed that they did not request their children's return, according to a recent report by a Guatemalan attorney general's office. This report was then later substantiated by a Department of Justice attorney representing the government at a September 10 hearing, withdrawing the government's previous statements in court claiming parents had requested that their children be returned. However, as the whistleblower disclosure alleges, the Administration continued to lie about whether they properly screened children for removal.

On Monday, Padilla, Durbin, and Representatives Jamie Raskin (D-Md.-08) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.-07) demanded answers from senior Administration officials on this cruel effort, including information on their compliance with due process and confidentiality obligations under asylum law, the TVPRA, and other statutory protections afforded to unaccompanied children by law.

Earlier this year, Senator Padilla led seven Senators in sounding the alarm on troubling reports that ORR unlawfully granted expanded access to sensitive data on unaccompanied children and their sponsors to DHS' Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Senators raised serious concerns that ICE could misuse this confidential information to enact mass deportations and detain immigrant families and demanded DHS Secretary Noem and HHS Secretary Kennedy immediately cease this misguided practice. In March, Padilla blasted the Trump Administration's stop work order to organizations that provide legal services for unaccompanied children and demanded they protect Congressionally mandated legal representation for these children in the immigration system.

Full text of the whistleblower disclosure is available here.

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