Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Hawaii

[leilanidude]

a rise in the number of kids, including even 4 years olds, having to "handle" their own legal defense.

Weren’t we told ICE would go after “the worst of the worst?”  That includes 4 year olds?  What did they do anyway?

We don’t know. Worst of all, the 4 year olds don’t know.

From HOPTE's link:

Migrant children who arrive in the United States without parents or legal guardians are considered “unaccompanied children,” and are transferred to shelters run by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Most children are then transferred out of shelters and placed with adults called sponsors to take care of them. A sponsor can be a parent already living in the United States, an adult relative or a licensed program like another youth shelter, according to a report by the Vera Institute of Justice. In a last-resort scenario when when family reunification doesn’t appear possible, a sponsor could be another adult approved by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the report notes.


In recent years, the number of unaccompanied children arriving in the United States reached record highs, peaking at nearly 129,904 in the fiscal year ending in 2022, according to Office of Refugee Resettlement data. Last fiscal year, 98,356 unaccompanied children entered the country, still tens of thousands higher than the numbers that came in 2020 and the years prior.
The vast majority of the unaccompanied children are Spanish speakers, hailing from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador or Mexico.
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My first thought is what sort of monster would do this to their child in the first place?
Is it not more cruel to have sent your child alone, across the border to begin with?