Children Often Face Deportation Hearings Alone -- With Little Public Scrutiny

Welcome to our news segment: TL;DR of Immigration News, for when the news is Too Long and you Didn’t Read it.

This is a weekly collection of immigration-related news stories. These bite-size summaries will keep you up to date without overwhelming your inbox.

Locked Up by Israel at 15, Palestine Activist Is Now Jailed by ICE | Truthout

“How dare federal ICE agents come into our community and unlawfully detain a grandfather, a faith leader, a Wisconsinite?” asks a recent statement by Milwaukee electeds. And yet: on March 30, twelve cars surrounded Palestinian American community leader Salah Sarsour, arresting him on vague allegations that seem to shift by the day. They include completely unsubstantiated charges of “material support for terrorism,’ as well as the accusation by Marco Rubio that Sarsour, by advocating for Palestine, contradicts US foreign policy and thereby needs to leave the country. Rubio made similar allegations against Mahmoud Khalil and other pro-Palestine leaders last year: all have since been freed.

Sarsour is a green card holder who has lived in the US for over 30 years. As a child in the West Bank, he was imprisoned by the Israeli government and tortured for three months. In the US, he is active in community support and national-level Palestine solidarity efforts.

As American Muslims for Palestine executive director Osama Abu Irshaid commented, “If [Muslims] can be targeted because of their political speech, anyone could be the subject tomorrow.”
Currently, Sarsour is being held in a 287-g contracting prison in Brazil, Indiana, where he has been denied necessary medications and has missed the birth of his ninth grandchild.

Stand with Salah Sarsour, against ICE terror, and for our collective civil rights. See below for a few ways to support Salah:

A petition for WI Jews to sign::
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLSpTthU1QEyRG83uC3TmSJBQ6hrmJ0yDBgyG-Di2Gi174qA/viewform?usp=header

For Jews outside WI, please sign this petition, which now has over 8,000 signatures:
https://www.bendthearc.us/salah_sarsour

For anyone, please sign this petition, which now has close to 3,000 signatures:
https://www.change.org/p/free-salah-sarsour-release-milwaukee-s-islamic-society-president-from-ice-detention

Justice Department makes it easier to deport those with DACA status : NPR

In a classic 1984 black-is-white-style move, the Board of Immigration Appeals has decided that DACA status isn’t enough to prevent someone from being deported. Reminder: DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The entire program was created to shield people from deportation when they had been brought to America involuntarily as children by some adult, usually a parent.

The original noble idea was to give people - who have lived basically their entire lives in the US - protection until Congress could make a high-level decision on a path to full citizenship. But Congress has been deadlocked on immigration reform for decades, under both R and D presidents. DACA has become a kind of limbo, with most of its recipients now young adults who are trying to build lives and families in the only country they’ve ever really known. This BIA clown show ruling upends that. The regime proposes to yank these people out of their lives and put them on planes to countries they haven’t been to in decades, with languages they don’t speak, and often with no family there to support them.

ICE detained more than 70 Minnesota children, data reveals | MPR News
Children often face deportation hearings alone — with little public scrutiny | WBUR News

Immigration officials detained more than 70 Minnesota children between Dec. 1 and March 10, 2026, according to a Sahan Journal analysis of detention records and habeas corpus petitions. The data analysis represents the most thorough accounting yet of the Minnesota children detained during Operation Metro Surge.

The analysis revealed some troubling trends: of the children who were detained, nearly two dozen were held in custody for more than 20 days, in violation of a longstanding legal settlement. Teens who were detained alone were sent to Christian youth shelters in Michigan, which made it hard for their families to find them. And nearly half of the children detained have since left the country. Data shows that more than 30 Minnesota kids were sent to Dilley during Operation Metro Surge, where many detainees noted poor food and water quality and contended with a measles outbreak.

About 20 of the Minnesota children detained during Operation Metro Surge have been deported. Another 10 have self-deported or withdrawn their application to admission to the United States.

Nearly all of Minnesota’s detained children came from Latin American countries. ###

Meanwhile, as the Trump administration carries out its aggressive deportation agenda, immigrant children across the country are subject to court proceedings similar to the ones adults face. The core of these hearings happen behind closed doors, with almost no way for the public to know if the children are afforded legal rights and protections — or what rulings judges make on their future.

When children go to court in person, parents often don't accompany them, for fear of being detained by immigration agents.

Nationally, more than 900,000 children faced deportation in 2025, according to federal immigration court data analyzed by the Vera Institute of Justice, an immigration research nonprofit.

Under former President Joe Biden, cases for unaccompanied children reached record highs. In response, the administration created a specialized “children’s docket” in 2023 and installed many child-friendly practices for courts to follow.

The second Trump administration dismantled the docket and rolled back those policies. Last year, it also cut legal aid for migrant children.

New judge, new pressures reshape Minnesota immigration court

Across the country, the Trump Administration has sought to remake immigration courts in a way that can accelerate deportations, and attorneys at the immigration court at Ft. Snelling in Minnesota are beginning to feel the effects of this.

Asylum requests have been declining, the government is increasingly filing motions to deny asylum without a full hearing, and the US Dept. of Justice has expanded the ability to dismiss cases because of incomplete or improperly filled out asylum forms. And with a new right wing judge appointed at the Ft. Snelling immigration court, “They are looking to, it seems, dispense with these cases in as quick a manner as possible,” said Brian Aust, a local immigration attorney. Without a doubt, asylum seekers in Minnesota have seen their options to stay in the US narrow as ICE has become more prevalent not just in communities but also in court houses and other government buildings that used to be off limits for them to conduct arrests.

Action items:
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-your-members-of-congress-to-vote-no-on-funding-for-ice-and-border-patrol/