Federal officials are facing a new fight over whether children in government care could be swept into deportation plans before the courts finish their work. Sen. Ron Wyden says Health and Human Services is using a list of more than 500 unaccompanied children in Office of Refugee Resettlement custody as targets for migrant children deportation under an “unprecedented legal framework.” HHS denies any plan to target them. The tension lands directly on ORR, the HHS office responsible for the care and custody of unaccompanied children.
Wyden told HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that he “obtained credible information” about children being lined up for fast-track removal. According to reports, many have been in federal custody for at least 180 days, are largely in long-term foster care, and have no identified sponsor in the U.S. Wyden said “the vast majority” have lawyers and warned that removing them “without the active involvement of these attorneys would constitute a severe breach of due process.” He demanded HHS stop “any screening initiative and planned removal action.”
His sharpest charge went straight at the agency’s mission.
“This is a severe institutional failure that places hundreds of vulnerable children in immediate jeopardy, effectively erasing them from the protection of U.S. oversight and thrusting them back into danger,” Wyden wrote. “To weaponize the very agency charged with their protection is an unacceptable escalation of executive overreach that undermines our nation’s commitment to due process.”
The backdrop matters. AP reported the administration tried a similar Labor Day weekend removal effort in 2025 involving Guatemalan children before a federal judge stopped the planes. Wyden now says, “The new information I obtained leads me to believe that the Department is laying the groundwork for another lawless deportation effort, this time on a greater scale, across more countries of origin.” Earlier this month, Wyden also questioned plans for a Louisiana site near deportation flights, calling it part of ORR’s drift toward enforcement.
HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard pushed back hard: “Despite this irresponsible fearmongering, there are no plans to target these children.” She added, “The Trump Administration is working to identify the parents or legal guardians of unaccompanied alien children in our care because ensuring every child is placed with a properly vetted sponsor is our top priority.”
Federal law says most unaccompanied children facing removal must go through removal proceedings and get access to counsel, while HHS must place children in the least restrictive setting that serves their best interests. The Flores Settlement Agreement also sets national standards for the treatment, placement, and release of detained immigrant children. Wyden argued those protections “do not contemplate the removal of children from ORR custody simply because a sponsor has not been identified.” Melissa Adamson of the National Center for Youth Law said, “This administration has a disturbing track record of treating unaccompanied children as a deportation target rather than as kids who are owed legal process and basic protection. We don’t know how or when this will occur, but we do know that this administration has repeatedly shown it will obliterate these children’s legal safeguards.”
