Internal emails show that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) attorney said that the group of unaccompanied children who were last month expelled just as a federal judge had issued a ruling blocking such expulsions should have been returned to the U.S. in compliance with that order, BuzzFeed News reports. But the group of 32 children were deplaned and turned over to Guatemalan officials. The attorney’s email, the report said, appears to have been sent after that happened.
A judge’s ruling last month blocking the public health policy that the Trump administration has used as an excuse to quickly expel children without an immigration court hearing should have immediately stopped the plane sending kids back to Central America that same day, but BuzzFeed News reported last month that officials continued on with that flight anyway. ICE claimed agents just weren’t aware of it.
BuzzFeed News now reports that order came 10 minutes before takeoff, with ICE since claiming in court documents that it found out about the ruling nearly 15 minutes after it had already handed over the children. Internal documents reported by BuzzFeed News state that an official overseeing ICE’s deportation flights frantically emailed the ICE attorney, Adam Loiacono, to find out what to do. It seemed pretty clear, at least to us.
“’In light of the district court’s order enjoining expulsion of unaccompanied minors under T42 [the public health order the judge blocked] issued this morning, [the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor] strongly recommends that the T42 unaccompanied minors be returned on this flight and not deplane in Guatemala,’ he wrote, according to the source who described the email to BuzzFeed News,” the report said.
But the returns to the U.S. never happened. “There is no question that the injunction applied even if the plane took off and landed in Guatemala after the court issued the injunction,” Lee Gelernt told BuzzFeed News. He’s an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued the administration over the expulsion policy. “ICE officials maintained that they would never ignore a court order,” the report continued.
But ICE lies, and as BuzzFeed News also notes, top Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials have admitted they in in fact expelled 34 children from the U.S. in violation of the court order, including a U.S. citizen who was later allowed to return. CBS News reported that CBP, just like ICE, feigned ignorance, saying, staff were “unaware of guidance issued by headquarters,” the report said. Nine of those children have reportedly been returned to the U.S.
The remaining children must be returned to the U.S. as well if they choose it, as well as the children expelled by ICE. The agency appears to have the information needed to immediately begin that process, with BuzzFeed News reporting that ICE officials “obtained contact information for the adults to whom the children were released in Guatemala.”
“It is so tragic,” Migration Policy Institute analyst Sarah Pierce told BuzzFeed News. “You’re talking about one of the most vulnerable populations. These children had an opportunity to stay in the US and apply for humanitarian benefits for which they may well qualify. This administration took it away from them.”