Independent: They donated millions to Trump — now, ICE detention providers are reaping the rewards

Private contractors run many of ICE’s largest detention facilities. Now, with a push to deport more and more immigrants, these companies stand to win big under Trump.


Two issues here:

  1. Congress must have the power to regulate and/or ban campaign activity by corporations and PACS. This will require a constitutional amendment.
  2. We need to stop the expansion of detention facilities for immigrants.

For many workers or organizations reliant on the federal government, President Donald Trump’s return to office has meant jobs, funding and entire agencies slashed, as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) claims to have cut $202 billion.

But one industry has seen exponential growth — and expects even more to come: immigration detention.

“Private prison companies have been so giddy since last November, about the prospect of making billions of dollars at the expense of every American,” Stacy Suh, director at Detention Watch Network, told The Independent.

And the companies made sure to help Trump get elected.

America’s two leading detention companies, Geo Group and CoreCivic, were among the Trump campaign’s most notable donors last year, with executives and subsidiaries donating a total of $2.7 million to the president’s campaign and associated political action committees.

CoreCivic even bestowed over $500,000 towards Trump’s inauguration this year, while Geo Group contributed to his 2016 inauguration fund.

Trump’s Big, Beautiful, Bill set aside an unprecedented$45 billion for ICE to boost immigration detention. As the two largest detention powerhouses in the U.S., both Geo Group and CoreCivic stand to win big.

As soon as Trump won the election last November, CoreCivic’s share price saw a huge spike, nearly doubling from $13.63 per share to $22.13 per share in just one week.

GeoGroup’s share price jumped from $15.13 to $25.05 in the same post-election period.

This is likely because the privately-run facilities house 86 percent of the detained immigrant population, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).

Yet just 6 percent of Americans believe that ICE detention centers should be run privately, an exclusive poll for The Independent can reveal, with the majority saying facilities should be run by federal or state governments, according to Prolific.

Over 60,000 people are currently held in immigration detention across the U.S., according to ICE records seen by The New York Times.

That number has already jumped by 54 percent since Trump’s return, with average detention populations under the Biden administration around 39,000, according to TRAC.

But though the government may determine their future, the 20 largest ICE detention centers are all operated by private companies, according to TRAC’s data in January.

GeoGroup and CoreCivic are the leading operators, both in terms of facilities operated and their capacity. Other private firms, like Lasalle Corrections and Management & Training Corporation (MTC), also have contracts to run ICE facilities.

CoreCivic runs the biggest detention centre in the country — Adams County Correctional Facility in Natchez, Missouri, with over 2,100 detainees on average each day. The new federal facility at Fort Bliss may soon take the cake, however, with a capacity of 5,000 people.

Both CoreCivic and GeoGroup provide both traditional prison incarceration services, and immigration detention services, to federal and state governments.

But with a slowdown in incarceration and greater focus on rehabilitation in recent years, prison contracts have been drying up — and increased immigration detention contracts has become more foundational to their business models.

One of Trump’s first actions in office was also to end the Biden-era ban on private prison providers, allowing companies like GeoGroup and CoreCivic to once again contract with the Department of Justice.

When asked for comment about its reliance on punitive policies by the new administration to build its business, CoreCivic noted that it does not enforce immigration laws, or arrest anyone, or have any say over an individual’s deportation — but it acknowledged that Trump’s policies does provide it with growth opportunities.

“As the current administration is exploring all options available to them to address the increasing demand for detention services and capacity, we expect that those options will include the high-quality solutions CoreCivic provides,” Ryan Gustin, director of Public Affairs at CoreCivic, told The Independent.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for GeoGroup told The Independent that “simply put, our facilities are never overcrowded.”

But Freedom of Information Act requests by TRAC last month revealed that several facilities run by GeoGroup were significantly overcapacity on at least one day this year.

This includes GeoGroup’s Pine Prairie processing centre in Louisiana, which has a contractual maximum of 500 people but held 1,311 detainees at some point in 2025.

Immigration operations make up over a third of revenue for both Geo Group and Core Civic, latest financial reports show, making ICE their largest governmental partner.

“We are proud of the role our company has played for 40 years to support [ICE’s] law enforcement mission, over seven different Presidential Administrations,” a GEO Group spokesperson told The Independent.

Geo Group has been awarded nearly $8 billion in federal contracts over successive governments, according to the federal database, in addition to state contracts.

Over half of this ($4.4 billion) was awarded by ICE for immigration detention services.

Meanwhile CoreCivic has been awarded over $8.3 billion in federal contracts over time, with a quarter ($2 billion) of those being ICE contracts to run detention facilities.

“ICE’s budget now is larger than many militaries around the world, while our hospitals and schools remain underfunded, and people are losing their access to health care and food benefits,” said Suh.

The Independent contacted ICE for comment for this article but did not get a response.

Federal contracts from ICE have been steadily increasing since Trump’s first term (with for a brief time during the peak of the pandemic), according to the federal spending database, rising from $137.5 million awarded in 2016 to $463.4 million in 2025 so far.

ICE contracts awarded since January alone include $353.5 million to GeoGroup, $148 million to CoreCivic, and $313 million to CSI Aviation — ICE’s deportation flight contractor.

“There is more and more incentivization to cage people in immigration detention. The more people that they detain, the more their business grows,” Suh said. “Financial Incentives are really the bedrock of incarceration.”

And now, documents seen by The Washington Post reveal that ICE is planning to more than double detention capacity, from around 50,000 to more than 107,000 by January 2026.

These plans include opening or expanding 125 facilities before the end of the year – with over $1 billion in contracts each year between CoreCivic and GeoGroup, according to the Post’s analysis of ICE documents.

Already, both detention giants have seen a flood of new or amendedcontracts and have opened up new facilities to expand their capacity.

What’s more, ICE has issued nine of these contracts without allowing competitive bids, citing a national emergency at the Mexico border — meaning that CoreCivic secured the deal to reopen its contentiousLeavenworth facility without competition, according to PBS.

“We stay in regular contact with ICE and all our government partners to understand their changing needs, and we work within their established procurement processes. It is our policy to respect these processes,” Gustin told The Independent of CoreCivic’s contracts.

Since January alone, several facilities have been opened up to hold more immigrants in detention as ICE ramps up its raids.

In the Michigan town of Baldwin, former prison North Lake Correctional Facility has now reopened as an immigration center operated by Geo Group, to the tune of $70 million in annual revenue. The 1,800-bed facility opened in June despite facing significant pushback from residents and local protests.

And just last week, a tense dispute broke out at a local board meeting in Mason, Tennessee, over the reopening of a CoreCivic facility as an immigration detention center. Residents crowded the meeting and chanted outside in protest of the contract, which was ultimately approved, according to reports in the Tennessee Lookout.

“If ICE expansion plans are fully realized, that’s a massive shift in resources. It’s also a massive transformation in the very fabric of American society and how it operates,” Suh told The Independent.

“Communities across the country are rightly outraged about detention expansion happening on their doorstep. People are saying, ‘No, we don’t want detention in our community. We don’t want our neighbors to be torn apart away from their loved ones’.”

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-donors-ice-immigration-detention-private-funding-b2812474.html

Inquisitr: ICE Arrests Plummet in Embarrassing Setback for Stephen Miller

Despite pressure from White House policy strategist Stephen Miller to escalate migrant detentions, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recorded a 19 percent drop in daily arrests from June to July. This surprising downturn shows the limits of their aggressive immigration tactics.

According to the nonpartisan Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), ICE booked an average of 990 arrests per day between July 1 and July 27. That’s down markedly from 1,224 arrests per day during June, representing a nearly 20 percent decline in a single month.

These figures bring into stark relief the discrepancy between on-the-ground performance and Miller’s high-pressure expectations. The former White House deputy chief of staff has relentlessly pushed for 3,000 arrests per day, an unprecedented rate intended to realize former President Trump’s plans for the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history. Instead, ICE is operating at roughly one-third the pace Miller demanded.

Miller, widely viewed as the architect behind many of Trump’s toughest immigration policies, allegedly threatened to fire ICE field office leaders whose offices ranked in the bottom 10 percent for arrest activity. Such aggressive oversight and internal pressure were intended to turbocharge enforcement, but the data shows the policy has not translated into scaled results.

The TRAC data signals potentially growing internal friction within ICE. Enforcement resources, legal constraints, staffing levels, and logistical complexities appear to be undermining Miller’s push for rapid, large-scale migrant arrests.

Whether administrative resistance, legal challenges, or operational capacity is at fault remains unclear, but the numbers do. A drop from 1,224 to 990 arrests per day means ICE detained roughly 7,758 fewer people in July than would have been expected under June’s pace, despite White House demands to ramp up enforcement.

Critics say the gap between Miller’s strategy and ICE’s actual output underscores a deeper disconnect within the immigration apparatus, between political directives from the top and the reality of enforcement on the ground. They argue this is a cautionary tale about over-reliance on high-intensity quotas that neglect operational feasibility and legal safeguards.

Supporters of Miller’s agenda argue that even the 990-per-day arrest rate in July signals a robust, no-exception enforcement posture, and the decline may reflect fewer available targets or improved border deterrence.

Still, the shortfall is stark. If ICE had met the 3,000-per-day benchmark for July, it would have booked around 90,000 arrests in the month. Instead, at its current pace, it would come in closer to 28,000 arrests total, missing the goal by a factor of more than three.

Even more, the drop comes at a critical time. As summer progresses and border crossings and migration patterns shift, policy advocates emphasize that maintaining, or increasing, enforcement momentum is crucial to sustaining broader deterrence goals.

From a political standpoint, the trend presents a public relations challenge for Miller. Suppose enforcement agencies cannot deliver on his demands. In that case, critics may question the realism of his approach to immigration control and the decision to push staff with threats instead of sustainable support.

Looking ahead, ICE may attempt to recalibrate, temporarily increasing internal operations or focusing on more enforceable cases. But any future uptick will face scrutiny: Is the agency capable of scaling to match Miller’s specified targets, or was the strategy always out of sync with practical limitations?

In sum, the nearly 20 percent drop in ICE arrests from June to July marks a humbling moment for immigration hardliners. Despite intense pressure from Miller to meet ambitious quotas, the agency’s output fell sharply and well below the aggressive benchmarks laid out by the former deputy chief of staff.

Inquisitr: ICE Arrests Plummet in Embarrassing Setback for Stephen Miller

News Nation: Man in ICE custody 6 months was a ‘collateral arrest,’ lawyer says

  • More than 56,000 migrants are in ICE detention
  • 47% of ICE detainees are being held on immigration-related offenses 
  • Trump administration officials have cited sanctuary cities as part of the problem

A man who’s lived in suburban Chicago for 30 years and owns a tree-cutting business has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for nearly six months, despite his lawyer stating he has no criminal record.   

Abel Orozco, 47, was arrested by ICE in late January as he was driving back to his home from picking up tamales for his family. Orosco, who, according to his attorney, the government has conceded has no criminal record, was apprehended by federal officers, who were searching for Orozco’s oldest son, also an immigrant with an order for removal, who shares the same name. 

Orozco arrived in the U.S. in the late 1990s under a petition that gave him the right to work and live legally in the United States. He was given an order of removal in 2004 after going to visit his father, who suffered a stroke in Mexico. 

His lawyer, Mark Fleming, says his client is part of a collection of undocumented migrants considered “collateral arrests” facing deportation under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. 

ICE did not have a warrant at the time of the encounter, Fleming said. Orozco is in ICE custody in Kentucky, where he now faces expedited deportation. 

When asked for comment surrounding the details of Orozco’s January arrest, an ICE spokesperson told NewsNation that ICE arrested Orozco, “an illegally present resident of Mexico,” on Jan. 26. “He is in ICE custody pending immigration proceedings.”

Orozco’s family has since missed months of mortgage payments despite Orozco’s younger son, Eduardo, doing his best to keep his father’s business afloat, while his wife fights breast cancer, Fleming told NewsNation.   

Orozco’s situation has migrant advocates concerned about how ICE is carrying out its business. 

“(ICE) has made a conscious choice to destroy this family even though they have other options,” said Fleming, who works with the National Immigrant Justice Center. “What our position to the government has been is, ‘Look, you have the right to seek removal for him, but you have choices as to how you do that.’” 

“And they’ve chosen the most aggressive and the one that strips him of the most due process possible.” 

Abel Orozco part of class action lawsuit against ICE 

Orozco is one of 25 plaintiffs who are part of a class-action lawsuit against ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and federal officials. The suit claims ICE violated a 2022 Castañon Nava settlement that expired in May, which prevents the agency from making arrests without a prior warrant or proof that a person represents a flight risk. 

ICE has declined to comment on the suit. 

Fleming insists ICE officials have refused to acknowledge they took the wrong person into custody despite the elder Orozco providing officers with his driver’s license when he was asked. 

After being pulled out of his vehicle, Orozco was handcuffed for more than an hour, his attorney said.  

Before officers drove away with Orozco in custody, Fleming said that ICE officers were on the family’s property without a warrant.  Ex-National Guard member convicted of conspiring to smuggle migrants 

“What’s so troubling is the permissiveness that they believe they have to do immigration enforcement in a way that you really don’t see other law enforcement do,” Fleming said.  

How many non-criminals is ICE holding? 

Of the more than 56,000 migrants being detained by ICE, 28% have criminal convictions, while 24% have pending criminal charges, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. ICE data shows that 47% of detainees have “other immigration violations.” 

Chicago Tribune analysis of data provided by the research group Deportation Data Project showed that 600 Chicago-area migrants with no known criminal background were booked by ICE in the first 150 days of the Trump administration. That number compares to just 66 in the final 150 days of the Biden administration. 

White House border czar Tom Homan has repeatedly warned that “no one is off the table” if they are in the country illegally and says that in some cases, ICE officers searching for the “worst of the worst” may be forced to take non-criminals into custody.  

He said that is especially true in sanctuary cities like Chicago, where he says policies are forcing ICE to go into communities to search for migrant criminals. 

“There’s going to be more collateral arrests in sanctuary cities because they forced us to go into the community and find the guy we’re looking for,” Homan said in a televised interview earlier this year.

Sam Olson, the enforcement and removal operations director in ICE’s Chicago field office, agreed, telling NBC News that the agency’s job is to enforce immigration laws. 

“If somebody is here illegally, whether or not they’re committed crimes, there is a possibility they could be arrested,” Olson said. 

Olson did not respond to requests for comment for this story from NewsNation. 

Why is ICE holding Abel Orozco? 

Despite the order of removal, Fleming said he had not been on ICE’s radar until now, as he continued to operate his business that employs eight people.

But after his arrest by ICE in late January, government officials sought to have his 2004 order to leave the country reinstated, stating that he is among those who broke the law by entering the U.S. illegally. 

Orozco’s relative petitioned for him before 2001, which allowed him to remain in the United States and work pending that application. Fleming said that Orozco was living in the United States when that application was submitted, but then everything changed when he went to see his ailing father back in Mexico.

Despite ICE’s stated mission and warnings, Orozco’s family does not agree they are doing their job the right way. Sinaloa cartel quickly losing territories, influence, Mexico says 

“(ICE) is arresting people who they’re not supposed to be,” Eduardo Orozco told reporters in March. “They’re stating that they’re arresting thousands and thousands of hardcore criminals. My father is not a criminal.” 

“But we’re not just fighting him anymore.  We’re fighting for everyone who was taken like this.” 

Meanwhile, Orozco’s wife, Yolanda, has pleaded for her husband’s release from federal custody, echoing her son’s sentiments. 

“Is it a crime to get up early every day and work hard to support your family? I just don’t know,” she told reporters through an interpreter. 

Orozco has an upcoming merits hearing in which he is seeking protection from being forced to return to Mexico. Fleming expects that a ruling may be coming in Orozco’s case by the end of July, after months of him and his family living in limbo.

Fleming believes that as they struggle to comprehend what is happening, Orozco’s loved ones know their journey is similar to those of other migrant families across the United States. 

“Mr. Orozco’s story really kind of highlights that this is the collateral consequences,” Fleming told NewsNation, adding, “he is someone who has embraced the United States, embraced how he can contribute to it and really just wants to be here to be here with his family.”

https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/immigration/abel-orozco-ice-arrest-collateral

LA Times: Contributor: Alligator Alcatraz, the concentration camp in Florida, is a national disgrace

The first detainees have started arriving at Alligator Alcatraz, Florida’s immigrant detention center in the Everglades. The facility went up on a former airstrip in eight days and will have an initial capacity of 3,000 detainees. Florida’s Republican state Atty. Gen. James Uthmeier, the driving force behind the project, posted on X recently that the center “will be checking in hundreds of criminal illegal aliens tonight. Next stop: back to where they came from.”

Alligator Alcatraz — the camp’s official name — raises logistical, legal and humanitarian concerns. It appears intentionally designed to inflict suffering on detainees, and to allow Florida politicians to exploit migrant pain for political gain. Some of the first people held there have already reported inhumane conditions.

“Alligator Alcatraz” is a misnomer. Alcatraz was home to dangerous criminals, including Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly. These were violent offenders who had been tried and convicted and sent to the forbidding island fortress.

In contrast, we don’t know whether detainees sent to Alligator Alcatraz will have had their day in court. We don’t know whether they will receive due process in immigration courts or be charged with a crime. We do know that the majority of people whom Immigration and Customs Enforcement is arresting have no criminal records. Remember, simply being in the U.S. without authorization is not a crime — it is a civil infraction. And the ranks of the undocumented include many people who once had lawful status, such as people who overstayed their visas and people with temporary protected status and other forms of humanitarian relief that the current administration has rescinded. Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research center, reports that 71% of immigrant detainees have no criminal record.

In Florida, ICE has arrested an evangelical pastor, a mother of a newborn and a U.S. citizen. These are the kinds of people who might end up spending time in Alligator Alcatraz. In fact, Florida state documents show that detainees there could include women, children and the elderly.

Alligator Alcatraz will place detainees in life-threatening conditions. The site consists of heavy-duty tents and mobile units, in a location known for intense humidity and sweltering heat. Tropical storms, hurricanes and floods pass through the area regularly. On a day when the president visited, there was light rain and parts of the facility flooded. This is not a safe place for the support staff who will be working there, nor is it for detainees.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has praised the “natural” security at Alligator Alcatraz as “amazing.” When asked if the idea was for detainees to get eaten by alligators if they try to escape, President Trump replied, “I guess that’s the concept.” However, escapes from immigration detention are rare. The June escape by four men from a New Jersey detention center made headlines, in part because it was such an unusual occurrence (three of the escaped detainees are back in custody). So the construction of a detention center with a “moat” of forbidding wildlife is just performative cruelty.

Consider the gleeful ways that Florida Republicans have promoted Alligator Alcatraz. The state GOP is selling branded merchandise online, such as hats and T-shirts. On his website, the attorney general is hawking his own products, including Alligator Alcatraz buttons and bumper stickers. But immigration detention is a serious matter. It should not be treated like a cheap spectacle, with souvenirs available for purchase.

Immigrant advocacy groups are rightfully alarmed by Alligator Alcatraz. They’re not the only ones: Environmental groups have protested its impact on the surrounding ecosystem, while Indigenous tribes are angry because the camp sits near lands that are sacred to them. The author of a global history of concentration camps has concluded that Alligator Alcatraz meets the criterion for such a label.

The most troubling aspect of Alligator Alcatraz is that it may be a harbinger of things to come. The budget legislation that the president signed into law on July 4 allocates $45 billion for immigration detention over the next four years. Other states may follow Florida’s example and set up detention centers in punishing locales. This will likely happen with little oversight, as the administration has closed the offices that monitored abuse and neglect in detention facilities.

Yes, Homeland Security and ICE are mandated by law to arrest people who are in the country without authorization and to detain them pending removal. That is true no matter who is president. Yet Alligator Alcatraz is a state project, outside the normal scope of federal government accountability. On Thursday, state lawmakers who sought to inspect the facility were denied entry.

In embracing Alligator Alcatraz, the administration is testing the limits of public support for the president’s immigration agenda. According to a June Quinnipiac survey, 57% of voters disapprove of the president’s handling of immigration. A more recent YouGov poll found that Alligator Alcatraz is likewise unpopular with a plurality of Americans.

Alligator Alcatraz is not a joke. It is a dehumanizing political stunt that puts immigrant detainees at genuine risk of harm or death.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2025-07-14/alligator-alcatraz-florida-immigration-detention

Independent: Judges are deporting record numbers of young children under Trump

A far cry from the “bad, hard criminals” Donald Trump said his undocumented immigrants crackdown would focus on, record-breaking numbers of deportation orders have been issued to young immigrant children under the Trump administration, The Independent can reveal.

More kids aged 11 or under — 8,317 — received a removal order from an immigration court in April than any other month in over 35 years of data collection, according to court data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).

Since Trump’s inauguration in January, judges have ordered removals for over 53,000 immigrant minors.

Those children are predominantly elementary school age or younger. Some 15,000 children were aged under four years old, and 20,000 of them were children aged four to eleven.

Teenagers are also experiencing climbing deportations, with 17,000 seeing a court-ordered removal, although that’s lower than their all-time peak in 2020 under the first Trump administration.

Some of these children being deported are unaccompanied minors, who do not have a legal guardian in the US; though the exact number is unclear, since immigration authorities stopped recording this data years ago.

Children, including toddlers, are required to show up at immigration hearings to be questioned by a judge – and many, unsurprisingly, do not understand what is happening nor the gravity of their situation.

In one case, a source tells the Independent, a young child from Haiti had his immigration court hearing remotely in front of a screen. The child, who had a learning disability, was fidgeting and running around the room. Finally, he pointed at the judge on the screen and asked – “Who’s that?”

In other cases, children are being arrested by ICE with their families, but held in detention and deported separately.

“A six year old child was picked up [by ICE] with his father, separated from his dad, and parked in custody for four months before being deported,” a lawyer familiar with children’s immigration cases told the Independent. The child was unable to receive legal assistance, as he was deported while federal legal funding had been cut.

The deportation outcome rate for immigrant children under age 11 is higher than in any other age group, latest figures show, and has jumped significantly since Trump came into office.

What’s more, under-18s account for one in four (26 percent) of all deportations ordered in immigration court since January – despite the fact that minors make up just 11 percent of the undocumented population.

The vast majority (76 percent) of children under 11 do not have legal representation, and cases are being sped through the system, according to sources close to the courts.

“This is pumping up the deportation numbers on the back of kids – their rights to safety and due process are not respected,” the immigration lawyer told the Independent.

“This is about striking fear in the hearts of everybody. It’s demonstrable cruelty in the name of so-called deterrence.”

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin responded to the Independent:

“Accusations that ICE is ‘targeting’ children are FALSE and an attempt to demonize law enforcement. ICE does not ‘target’ children nor does it deport children. Rather than separate families, ICE asks mothers if they want to be removed with their children or if the child should be placed with someone safe the parent designates.”

Highest-ever deportations for young children

Immigration crackdowns across the country have been almost indiscriminate, with new data revealing that ICE is arresting more non-criminals than ever.

The number of people who have been deported under the Trump administration is murky; ICE has not disclosed official figures since January, and available immigration court data is not comprehensive, with age not recorded in 13 percent of cases.

But analysis of court data reveals that children have been increasingly, and disproportionately, marked for deportation in recent months.

Under the Trump administration, immigration courts have quickly ramped up deportation rates. Around two thirds (68 percent) of all immigration court proceedings ended in deportation in May, compared to 39 percent in January.

But for children under 11, the removal rate is even higher, at 75 percent in May; and 78 percent for kids under 4 years old, both substantially higher than the 45 percent seen on average for young kids in January.

This suggests that children are being disproportionately targeted for deportations under this administration, overrepresented by 2.3 times more than their proportion of the illegal immigrant population, our analysis shows.

“What we’re seeing right now is basically a grist mill in immigration court, just scooting kids through the process as quickly as possible,” the lawyer, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Independent.

At the same time, children facing immigration court are more vulnerable and less protected than ever.

In spite of this, the Trump administration has been fighting to cancel funding which provides legal aid for unaccompanied immigrant children.

The government first issued a stop-work order in February, and cancelled federal contracts in March. In April the federal district court ordered the Trump administration to restore funding, saying it is congressionally mandated under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA).

Legal assistance programs told the Independent that they had since been re-contracted; but remain on “pins and needles” as the government appeals the court ruling, and Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill makes it harder and more expensive to sue against his policies.

Rocket dockets and separating families

In the meantime, children are being put on expedited paths through immigration court, known as “rocket dockets”, according to the immigration lawyer.

Many of these cases are going through in just two weeks from start to finish – which leaves little-to-no room for a child to prepare the necessary documents and arguments.

“Of course, a child is going to file a case that’s not completely fleshed out in all the legal arguments, because they don’t understand the legal argument,” the lawyer told the Independent.

“This is also really damaging for trafficking victims. Kids who have experienced severe trauma need the time to have their nervous system relax, to understand that they’re safe, to share some of the most sensitive details about their cases.”

These tactics evoke the family separation policy, employed in 2018 under the first Trump administration, which forcibly kept parents and children apart when detained at the border – with as many as 1,360 families never reunited, according to Human Rights Watch.

“It is seen as against the due process rights of a child to be systematically separated from their parent or legal guardian,” the lawyer explained.

“What’s clear is that they are sidestepping the legal settlement to protect children from these cruel techniques.”

The Independent is the world’s most free-thinking news brand, providing global news, commentary and analysis for the independently-minded. We have grown a huge, global readership of independently minded individuals, who value our trusted voice and commitment to positive change. Our mission, making change happen, has never been as important as it is today.

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-immigration-child-deportation-numbers-b2786626.html