FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Harlingen, TX, April 24, 2020—Early this morning, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials deported a 16-year-old girl known as AMPV to Honduras, where she had fled physical violence, sexual violence, and death threats before seeking protection at the United States border. The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, appointed as the independent Child Advocate for AMPV after she entered the country as an unaccompanied child, strongly denounces this action which has endangered AMPV’s life. We urge all appropriate Congressional Committees to investigate and hold ICE accountable for this unconscionable and unnecessary repatriation of a child who was eligible to pursue multiple forms of protection in the United States.  

“This is devastating. AMPV fled sexual violence and death threats for reporting her abuser and sought protection at our border. Once DHS learned that she had cases pending in both immigration and federal court, they rushed to put her on a plane back to the very people who threatened her life,” said Olivia Peña, Deputy Program Director at the Young Center, who supervised AMPV’s case.  

AMPV fled Honduras with her mother after surviving physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her father. They made it to the U.S. border last year, but CBP officials forced them to stay in Mexico and prevented them from entering the country and lawfully seeking protection. AMPV and her mother lived in a tent on the streets of Matamoros, Mexico while they waited for their turn to appear in a tent court. They couldn’t find an attorney and eventually went to tent court unrepresented and were denied asylum. While they considered next steps, conditions in Matamoros deteriorated and the teenager returned to the border alone in a final, desperate attempt to ask for protection. Because her mother remained behind in the refugee camp, AMPV was designated as an unaccompanied child and placed in federal custody.

“ICE deported this teenager knowing she had an appeal pending and that her mother remained in Mexico, unable to help her daughter. ICE did not ask, or did not care to know, whether any family member will be able to protect AMPV when she returns. They did not provide anyone a chance to help facilitate AMPV’s safe repatriation, which is required by federal law. We don’t know whether ICE allowed AMPV to speak to her frantic mother before waking her in the middle of the night to send her back to Honduras, alone,” said Jennifer Nagda, Policy Director at the Young Center.

The Young Center is the government-appointed Child Advocate for AMPV and is tasked with advocating for her best interests—her safety and well-being. In collaboration with AMPV’s immigration and federal court counsel, the organization worked to galvanize support and call on ICE to stop the deportation. Advocates, representatives, attorneys, and concerned citizens banded together late Thursday night to contact ICE and DHS, flooding their telephone system with calls, messages, and requests to delay the child’s repatriation.

“We are heartbroken for AMPV and her mother. Our team is already in touch with partners in Honduras who hope to find and support AMPV when she returns,” said Peña. “Trapped in Mexico, this child had no fair opportunity to assert a claim for protection. In the U.S., our laws offered her an opportunity to seek help. Rather than let the law follow its course, DHS put her on a plane, alone and afraid, in the dead of night. Her case proves that our collective efforts to protect children thrown into such an inhumane system are more important than ever,” added Nagda.

The Young Center is referring this case to the House Committees on Homeland Security, Oversight, Judiciary, Appropriations, Energy and Commerce and to the Senate Committees on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Judiciary, Appropriations, and Health, Education and Labor and Pension for investigation.

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Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights is a human rights 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.

For press inquiries, please contact Noorjahan Akbar at media@theyoungcenter.org or 202-725-7184.