Trump Administration’s So-Called “Wellness Checks" of Unaccompanied Immigrant Children Harm Children and Families

WASHINGTON, DC — In response to recent reports of the Trump Administration sending Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal law enforcement agents unannounced to the homes and schools of unaccompanied immigrant children to conduct so-called wellness checks, Marisa Chumil, Co-Director of the Child Advocate Program at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, released the following statement: 

“Children belong with family, and the children subjected to these checks have been released to family members or other sponsors approved by the federal government. Rather than fostering children’s safety and wellbeing, these law enforcement checks are deeply harmful to children who now live in heightened fear of a visit that could lead to detention and deportation or family separation. These “checks” by law enforcement have nothing to do with promoting children’s wellness or welfare—otherwise child welfare experts would conduct them after specific concerns were raised about an individual child’s safety. But that’s not what is happening. These so-called wellness checks are really about immigration enforcement. 

As a result of these checks, in some cases law enforcement officials detain and deport children and their family members. In other cases, officials rip children apart from their family as ICE detains their loved ones. And officials separate some children from their family, after which the government sends them back into federal custody.   

If the federal government cared about children, they would keep families together, not detain them. They would support immigrant children, their families, and communities. They would not cut vital services and supports, like legal services for unaccompanied children. Using “wellness checks” as a pretext to locate, interrogate, and deport children and families is deceitful and cruel and must end. We call on the Trump Administration to stop these attacks on children and their families, to stop using children to fuel its anti-immigrant agenda, and to commit itself to initiatives that truly advance children’s safety and wellbeing.” 

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The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights is a non-profit organization that protects and advances the rights and best interests of immigrant children and advocates for an immigration system that treats children as children first.