WATCH: Padilla Denounces Trump Administration’s Mistreatment of Unaccompanied Children

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, criticized Senate Republicans' hypocrisy in convening a hearing focused on the Biden Administration's management of unaccompanied children as multiple recent reports emerge about the current Administration's cruel mistreatment of unaccompanied children, ongoing family separations, and disregard for child safety and the rule of law. During his opening statement at the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing, Padilla called on his Republican colleagues to join him in pushing for oversight and accountability over this Administration's flagrant violations of unaccompanied migrant children's rights.

Padilla slammed the Trump Administration for attempting to unlawfully deport dozens of unaccompanied Guatemalan children in the middle of night over Labor Day weekend despite their ongoing immigration proceedings and fear of returning to Guatemala. Despite the Trump Administration's claims to the contrary, a whistleblower disclosure yesterday alleged that at least 30 unaccompanied Guatemalan children the Administration attempted to deport without due process were flagged in the Office of Refugee Resettlement's (ORR) database as having indicators of trafficking or child abuse if they were to be removed to Guatemala. Ahead of the Subcommittee hearing, Padilla and Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) requested an oversight hearing on ORR's mass child deportation efforts and apparent lies under oath.

He also highlighted reporting from the Washington Post uncovering that the Trump Administration's mass deportation agenda has reignited forced family separations, including a recent incident in which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ripped a 35-year-old Honduran mother from her twin 14-year-old daughters despite her maintaining a work permit, a pathway to a visa, and a pending asylum claim.

Key quotes from Senator Padilla's opening remarks are below:

• "Too often, their stories of unaccompanied children go unheard until a horrific story about their mistreatment shocks the conscience of our country. And it's not just a matter of past tense. It is not just a matter of what happened during the Biden Administration or in prior years. One of these stories broke out just a few weeks ago."

• "On Sunday, August 31st - at about 1 or 2 in the morning - 76 children in Texas shelters were jolted awake. In the middle of the night, with no warning, they were instructed to pack their bags, and immigration officials led them to an airport to be deported. Without a hearing, without due process, and without proper vetting to see if they would be safe back in Guatemala, these kids, as you can imagine, were terrified."

• "Now it's on us to do the right thing and bring ORR officials before this committee to demand the truth. Now, Mr. Chairman, we are the committee of jurisdiction with an obligation to conduct oversight over ORR. So I don't just ask you, I urge you: let's work together to schedule an oversight hearing with ORR to get to the truth."

• "Every single one of us here has a responsibility to stand up for the children in our immigration system, whether it's because of trafficking, physical or sexual abuse, child labor, or violations of their due process. And this is a responsibility that I don't take lightly, none of us should take lightly."

• "The reality is, the Trump Administration officials should be the ones in the seats in front of us to field our questions and to answer our questions about their, in many ways, cruel and unlawful policies, especially after this whistleblower disclosure."

• "If we truly want to improve our immigration system and protect unaccompanied children, we'd be exercising our oversight authority to ask about the real harm currently happening to children because of the indiscriminate mass deportation policies that this Administration is carrying out. There has to be real oversight of this Administration and their dangerous treatment of minors."

• "So don't lecture me about kids, and then at the same time grab defenseless children in the middle of the night to haul them off to a country when we know they will be in danger. Don't lecture me about kids, but then refuse to call out this Administration when they deprive them of representation. And don't lecture me about kids and then refuse to speak out when we hear parents are being forced to decide whether to be deported with their children or let them be sent to ORR shelters, as we learned just this morning."

• "Not a single child benefits from political theater. So today, it's my hope that this hearing doesn't devolve into just a competition of who can praise Trump the most or who can bash Biden the best. Because regardless of which party is in the White House, or which party is in the majority in Congress, keeping children safe should be a bipartisan concern."

• "Everybody in this hearing room and everybody watching at home: Democrats demanded accountability from the Biden Administration on what happened to children under their watch. And I invite our Republican colleagues to join us in demanding the same accountability from the Trump Administration about what's happening to children under theirs."

Video of Senator Padilla's opening statement is available here and be downloaded here.

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 Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, 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 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.

Under the Biden Administration, Padilla co-chaired a hearing in which he condemned the labor exploitation of migrant children in the United States and called on the federal government to enforce the law and hold employers accountable for unlawfully exploiting migrant children.

###