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For many years, the immigrant executive has been tapped to operate an institution in charge of the management of non -companion children. This is a movement that is alert to experts and supporters who are concerned that information about children and their families will be shared for arrest and expulsion.
For the past 20 years, offices in the Ministry of Health and Welfare have supervised children across borders without parents or legal parents. The government emphasizes that the government handes this obligation to the immigrant executive agency, but to the three -country retirement bureau of refugees, and emphasizes that the process is not punished, but to safely place children with sponsors living in the United States. I am doing it.
The wall was eroded between President Donald Trump’s first administration. The ORR began to share specific information on children without a companion and potential sponsors, and won the arrest waves. The parliament has set a limit on this sharing, and President Joe Biden has stopped his practice, but he is worried that Trump’s new recruitment in the second administration has collapsed again. There are people and experts.
Mellissa Harper, an ICE veteran immigrant executive officer, has been tapped to lead the child of an immigrant with no accompaniment, according to three officials of the current and former government. Authorities demanded anonymity to discuss government management. According to the federal government’s employee directory, her position is more about the federal government, which allows carrier government employees to relocate between institutions for temporary roles.
This seems to be the first time an official of ice has been hired to lead a refugee reconfirmating office, and former government officials told Propublica. Harper’s experience is mainly composed of immigration execution. Former ICE officials said that Harper had a high reputation within government agencies and had expertise in dealing with issues involved in minors in the government.
Legal document reviews indicate that her employment is marked in a lawsuit that claims to violate the Immigration Law. While she led a unit in the ice that supervises minors and family, the institution was par with the 18th -century birthday to relocate to a teenager to adult detention facility. Was eligible.
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She led a family unit in 2018, and the administration implemented a “zero tolerance” immigration policy and separated thousands of immigrants from their parents. Former ICE officials stated that the unit did not make a decision to separate during the zero tolerance, but has the role of providing minor transportation and coordination of immigration cases.
HHS, which has a refugee office, quotes Propublica e -mails, quoting “a popular communication and a public appearance that is not directly related to an emergency or is not important for maintaining health”. I did not respond to the question.
Harper did not respond to the Propublica email questions. The Trump administration and ice did not respond to comments.
Harper has been working in ICE since 2007, and has recently led the execution and removal field office of New Orleans.
Her new role is Scott Shucchart, who served with ICE as a political appointment among the Biden administration, “I want to ensure both children without a companion and both sponsors.” It seems to be a part.
In the past, some smugglers have said that immigrants are encouraging children to send their children alone. Under US laws, they know that they must be taken to the ORR custody and are released to sponsors. He said that the scenario pushed up the number of children to arrive on his own. Once released, they can apply for asylum or other rescue in the United States. This is a process that takes several months or years to solve.
After being released to the sponsor from ORR’s custody, some cases of children who worked illegally and sometimes worked illegally in dangerous work. In 2015, it is said that a minor without Guatemala was sold to work on an egg farm in Ohio.
Republican members are calling for institutions by not providing appropriate protection to prevent these kinds of litigation. In a presidential order issued by Trump after taking office on January 20, a certain management order states that HHS should share “necessary information” to stop the transaction and smuggling of immigrant children. Ta.
In the first Trump administration, ORR began to share information with ICE about children and adult sponsors in 2018 and scrutinized it. Using this information, the immigrant executive agency arrested about 300 people, fearing many sponsors with refugees. It is an agency and contributed to many children being detained for a long time.
Congress has restricted information sharing, and Biden canceled his practice. Last December, his administration issued a notification stating that “the ORR is not an immigrant executive agency and has not maintained a record for immigration execution.”
Harper’s appointment comes after a playbook developed by a conservative group as a policy blue photo of the Trump administration, the author of the Project 2025. For treatment of detained immigrants.
Surprised supervision of minors
The instructions of Harper in the ICE boy and family’s housing management department were previously scrutinized.
In March 2018, the Immigration Bureau faced a collective lawsuit from a group of teenagers, which was moved from the ORR custody to the adult ice detention facility, on the 18th birthday. The plaintiffs argued that they were illegally transferred without considering the less restricted arrangements in violation of the Federal Law.
Two years later, the U.S. Judge Rudolph Contraas decided that ICE had violated the law. In a statement of the 180 -page survey, he referred to more than 160 testimonies about how he operated the harp or her unit.
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The court issues a five -year permanent injunction, and the immigration agency complies with federal law by considering the arrangement of these teenagers in an environment with less restrictions than in detention facilities. Requested. The court has also revised its policy on how the institution re -trained an officer and determined the child custody at the age of 18.
According to Linkedin’s profile, Harper became a director of the New Orleans ice field office in October 2022, one month after the judge approved the final settlement agreement in a collective lawsuit. 。
In the year when the lawsuit was filed, ICE spokesman told reporters that the agency is compliant with legal standards and institutional policies. Neither ICE nor HARPER responded to Propublica questions about the incident or its reconciliation.
Currently, supporters are wondering if such problems will re -emerge.
“When the parliament decided to move a child that was not accompanied by the custody of the federal immigrant executive over 20 years ago, it did with a clear intention to prioritize the principle of child welfare.” The center.
“Children without a companion should be a unique vulnerability and should be treated as a child.
Criminal. “
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