Trump Said He Would Deport Criminals - Why Is ICE Going After Children?

Donald Trump said immigrants were committing horrible crimes, and he would deport those criminals. But most of the people being apprehended and deported are not criminals, and sadly, many are CHILDREN! The following is part of a post by Dan Rather: 

With the exception of federal judges, few Americans are able to push back on presidential actions that are at best questionable, most likely illegal, and unethical if not outright immoral.

Let’s begin in Texas, where, in the middle of the night on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend — the timing was not accidental — ICE agents snatched hundreds of Guatemalan children from their foster care beds and attempted to put them on planes bound for Guatemala.

No parents, no guardians, just children, many of whom came to this country alone, many with pending immigration hearings. No matter: The 600 children would soon be removed to Guatemala, unless immediate court action intervened.

“I have the government attempting to remove minor children from the country in the wee hours of the morning on a holiday weekend, which is surprising, but here we are,” said U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, who oversaw the emergency hearing in the middle of the night.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement, part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), typically takes custody of children awaiting immigration decisions. By law they must be housed in a safe environment as their proceedings make their way through the system.

At 10:45 p.m. on Saturday, foster care facilities housing the children received an email from HHS demanding that the children be “travel ready” in two to four hours. The email claimed that there were “children in your program that have been identified for reunification with their parents.”

But according to Lauren Flores of the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project, none of the children’s parents had requested their return. That assertion is supported by an internal report from the Guatemala attorney general’s office, which contradicts the U.S. government’s claim that the children’s parents wanted them returned, according to Reuters.

Those running the foster care facilities said the email caused utter panic. Children were crying, screaming, even becoming physically ill. Many said it wasn’t safe for them to go back to Guatemala. Nonetheless, ICE apprehended some of the children and put them on planes in Harlingen and El Paso.

Legal action was taken immediately. In a matter of hours, for what usually takes days or weeks, Judge Sooknanan issued a temporary restraining order and held a hearing, barring the children’s removal. She also got written and verbal confirmation from the Department of Justice that every child was in the care of HHS. Recent DOJ actions related to immigrant deportation prompted the judge to confirm her orders were heeded.

The children were taken off the planes and returned to foster care.