Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today called on the Trump administration to halt an attempt to remove hundreds of children from the United States using dubious legal justification, contrary to federal law, international human rights law, prior legal settlements, and active litigation.
In the letter, sent to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Wyden makes it clear that any attempt to conduct a mass removal of children in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is an abdication of the agency’s core humanitarian and child welfare mandates, and undermines the nation’s commitment to due process.
“I have obtained credible information that the HHS is utilizing a list of over 500 unaccompanied children currently in the care and custody of the ORR as targets for expedited removal under an unprecedented legal framework,” Wyden wrote. “Given the imminent threat to these children's safety and legal rights, time is of the essence. I demand the immediate suspension of any screening initiative and planned removal action involving children in ORR care, along with a substantive response to this letter and to the prior outstanding letters. You have been entrusted with the care and safety of the children placed within the ORR network. Proceeding with this plan knowingly endangers their lives and violates your duty to these vulnerable children.”
Wyden has led oversight efforts of the Trump administration’s neglect of ORR and the children in its custody. Last fall, he spotlighted an attempt by the administration to deport 700 children to Guatemala over Labor Day weekend. Earlier this month, Wyden demanded more answers from the administration on ORR’s role in the planned federal holding site of unaccompanied children and their families.
The text of the letter is here.
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