Unaccompanied minors would get $2,500 to return home under new immigration crackdown

The Trump administration, in the latest front in its mass deportation campaign, is targeting "unaccompanied" children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without their parents, according to officials and advocates.

The government is offering the children, including thousands on Long Island, $2,500 to go back to their homelands — and suggesting they and their families could be targeted for arrest when they turn 18 if they don’t accept.

The program appears to focus on teens ages 14 to 17 but could involve children as young as 10, according to national immigration lawyers’ associations.

Advocates and immigration lawyers called the move a new low in the immigration crackdown.

"You're clearly running out of all the bad guy criminals that you kept claiming you were making America safe by removing, so now you're looking at 11-year-olds" with no criminal records, said Minerva Perez, executive director of OLA of Eastern Long Island, a Latino advocacy group. "It's mind-boggling."

She thought it was a hoax when she first heard about the new initiative, but it was quickly confirmed by groups including the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the largest such group in the country. AILA sent out a nationwide alert to attorneys about the new program.

The initiative was dubbed "Freaky Friday" by the government because it was slated to start last Friday, according to the AILA alert, though the Department of Homeland Security denied the term was used.

"These allegations are categorically false," Emily Covington, assistant director of the ICE Office of Public Affairs, said in a statement. "The anti-ICE activists have made up a ridiculous term, ‘Freaky Friday,’ to instill fear and spread misinformation that drives the increased violence occurring against federal law enforcement."

'Voluntary option'

"Cartels trafficked countless unaccompanied children into the United States during the Biden administration," Covington said, and the departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services "have been working diligently to ensure the safety and wellbeing of those children."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement and HHS’ Office of Refugee and Resettlement "are offering a strictly voluntary option to return home to their families," she said.

The option would give unaccompanied children "a choice and allows them to make an informed decision about their future. Any payment to support a return home would be provided after an immigration judge grants the request and the individual arrives in their country of origin," Covington said.

ICE did not say how much the children would be paid to return home, but AILA in its alert said it was $2,500.

Although there are no official figures, immigration lawyers and advocates say Long Island is home to thousands of immigrant children who arrived here without their parents. They typically reunite with their parents, who had traveled here earlier, or move in with other relatives. Some are under custody of the federal government.

Children targeted in the new program would receive "threat" letters advising them of the government offer to leave, AILA said. If they accept the offer they would be giving up any chance of applying for legal status.

"There are indications that the age threshold for this threat letter may be lowered to 10 years old," AILA said.

'Huge class of people'

Ala Amoachi, an East Islip-based immigration attorney, said her clients included hundreds of unaccompanied minors, and that the total on Long Island was in the thousands.

"It's a huge class of people," she said.

She called the new program "outrageous."

"You’re targeting children and you’re targeting a very vulnerable population because a lot of these kids are leaving their country to escape situations of physical abuse, sexual abuse, forcible gang recruitment," Amoachi said.

OLA’s Perez said her agency was informing clients of the new initiative and urging them to be prepared, including having an emergency plan if they were separated from their children.

"We're talking to our clients, talking to our community about preparing themselves for the worst, having their emergency plan in place, and just documenting how these next steps arrive," she said.

President Donald Trump contends what he says will be the largest mass deportation campaign in U.S. history is targeting mainly dangerous criminals in the country illegally. Advocates say many restaurant dishwashers, landscapers, factory workers and others with no criminal record are getting swept up.