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>600,000 immigrant #children have crossed the #US - #Mexico border without a parent or legal guardian since 2019, acc/to government data, as the number of migrants caught crossing illegally reached record levels.

Tens of thousands have been ordered deported over the same time frame, including >31,000 for missing court hearings, #immigration court data show.

During his first term, #Trump introduced a "zero tolerance" policy that led to the separation of migrant #children from their parents at the #border. The children were sent to children's shelters run by the Office of #Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a government agency housed within the #HHS, while their parents were detained or deported.

The #FamilySeparation policy, including #babies from nursing #mothers, was met w/widespread international outrage. #Trump halted the policy in 2018, though up to 1,000 #children may still remain separated from parents, per Lee Gelernt, the lead #ACLU atty in a related legal challenge.

As well as enforcing #immigration laws, the memo, headlined the “Unaccompanied Alien Children Joint Initiative Field Implementation,” said the initiative aims to ensure that #children are not victims of #HumanTrafficking or other forms of #exploitation.

The memo said the children would be served a notice to appear in immigration court or deported, if #deportation orders were pending against them.

In the memo, #ICE said it had collected data from a number of sources on unaccompanied #minors & sorted them into 3 priority groups, "flight risk", "public safety" & "border security."

It directed agents to focus on #children deemed “flight risks” - including those ordered deported for missing court hearings & those released to sponsors who are not blood relatives.

ICE uses several databases & govt records to track down targets.

…Mellissa Harper, a former #ICE official who now heads #ORR, told a staff meeting on Thurs that the agency plans to use #DNA tests to establish familial relationships, one of the sources said. It was unclear whether DNA tests would be used only on cases that raised a red flag, or on a routine basis.

@Burn_this_ @Nonilex you know, I remember a lot of people were upset that Black Americans did not do ancestry/23 and me tests, after the Golden State Killer was caught using familial DNA. Because OBVIOUSLY these companies would never do anything unethical with your DNA data!

@gooba42 weirdly this makes trump officials child traffickers which is what they are calling immigration in some parts of their constituencies.