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The Democratic senator Ron Wyden from Oregon warned on Wednesday that the Trump administration is preparing for the expedited deportation of more than 500 unaccompanied migrant children in federal custody, bypassing the legal protections that safeguard these minors.
According to a letter sent by Wyden to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the senator claimed to have "credible information" that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was managing a list of over 500 minors identified for an expedited deportation process, and that the department was acting urgently to carry it out within a matter of days.
"The new information I obtained leads me to believe that the Department is laying the groundwork for another illegal deportation effort, this time on a larger scale and targeting more countries of origin," Wyden wrote in the letter.
At-risk children come from countries such as Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Afghanistan. They have spent at least 180 days in federal custody—primarily in foster homes—and have been classified as lacking a "viable sponsor" in the United States.
This classification may be due to the fact that their parents are in their countries of origin, have passed away, or fear claiming them out of concern of being arrested by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has detained undocumented parents during reunification processes.
Wyden, who is the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee —which has jurisdiction over the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)— called for the immediate halt of any expulsion plan and warned that proceeding "endangers their lives and violates our duty to these vulnerable children."
The spokesperson for HHS, Emily Hilliard, denied the plans and labeled the senator's claims as "irresponsible alarmism." "There are no plans to target these children," she stated, adding that the administration is working to identify the parents or legal guardians of the minors.
This would be the second attempt by the administration to carry out an expedited mass deportation of minors.
The first occurred during the Labor Day weekend of 2025 when dozens of Guatemalan children were taken in the early morning from shelters and foster homes and transported by bus to airports in Texas en route to Guatemala.
A federal judge was awakened in the middle of the night and issued an order that halted the flights. In September 2025, the same judge indefinitely extended the block on those expedited deportations.
Lauren Fisher Flores, legal director of the ProBar project at the American Bar Association, described the impact of that operation: "A child was hospitalized for several days due to anxiety. For months, a young client refused to get on buses for medical appointments or court hearings. All the rules and laws in place to protect these children could not prevent them from experiencing something deeply traumatic."
The main regulation protecting these minors is the 2008 Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which requires that they be placed in "the least restrictive environment possible" while their immigration cases are resolved, and allows them to apply for asylum or a special protective status.
Since the beginning of its second term, the administration has systematically tightened the conditions for children to be released to sponsors, resulting in minors who remain in government shelters for months without being able to reunite with family members.
Wyden had previously issued a similar warning ahead of the 2025 Labor Day operation, reinforcing the credibility of his new alert. In his letter this Wednesday, the senator did not disclose how he obtained the information, and his office declined to provide any additional details.
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