Immigrant children in a detention center.
Credit: Ross D. Franklin

The Trump administration has reached another shameful milestone in its immigration policy, with the number of unaccompanied immigrant minors in U.S. custody reaching a record number of 14,056. (emphasis added)

The San Francisco Chronicle, citing a government source familiar with the statistic, said the number of children in Department of Health and Human Services custody surpassed a previous record set just two months ago, and there is no sign the trend will change soon.

One reason this number is increasing, the report said, is a new policy by Immigration and Customs Enforcement enacted earlier this year that allows ICE officials to gather information on potential sponsors of unaccompanied minors. This permits ICE to target and arrest undocumented sponsors for deportation, and it causes many of them to become too frightened to come forward to claim the minors. This policy is a change from the approach of past administrations.

“The [then] proposal has the potential to drastically expand ICE’s enforcement dragnet,” Katie Shepherd […]