U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to escalate the Trump administration’s child deportation campaign with a call center in Nashville, Tenn.
Michael Lukens
“In the notice posted to a government contracting website on Tuesday, ICE officials said there is an ‘immediate need’ to establish the call center, which is expected to receive and process ‘6,000 to 7,000 calls per day’ regarding the locations of minors,” ABC News reported Nov. 5.
The center — slated to open in June 2026 — will not protect children but simply make it easier to remove them from the country, said Michael Lukens, executive director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. “There are a host of federal laws and programs that purport to protect unaccompanied children, which this administration has been actively attempting to dismantle.”
Judith Clerjeune with the Tennessee Immigration Rights Refugee Coalition assailed the call center as another terrifying tactic to tear families and communities apart, according to WKRN News 2 in Nashville.
Immigrant children already are afraid to go to school or are being left alone after parents are abducted by ICE, she said. “It’s unthinkable to hear the phrase ‘government targeting’ and ‘children’ in the same sentence. That we would be spending so much money to target children like that is a nightmare reality and none of us should be OK with that.”
Judith Clerjeune
The planned center is just the latest administration effort to expel children in its ongoing mass deportation program.
In September, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security staged unannounced, late-night raids to deport unaccompanied Guatemalan children then in federal shelters and foster homes. A judge subsequently barred the removals after dismissing unfounded claims the children’s parents sought their return.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services then started offering $2,500 to unaccompanied minors who agree to self-deport.
The policy represents an exploitation of children who fled violence, human trafficking and other abuses in their home countries, said Christine Lemonda, senior director of children’s services at Church World Service.
“This new tactic, that comes on the heels of the administration’s attempts to deport approximately 75 children from Guatemala, in some cases cutting short ongoing immigration proceedings, is yet another attempt in the administration’s immigrant enforcement scheme. The effects of this could take away due process for unaccompanied children.”
The White House, meanwhile, has significantly expanded immigration enforcement partnerships with local and state governments as part of the 287(g) program, which is a section of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.
The voluntary program authorizes and reimburses state and local law enforcement agencies to conduct immigration enforcement functions usually reserved for ICE agents. According to DHS, the number of those partnerships has increased from 135 to 1,001 as of mid-September.
“We encourage all state and local law enforcement agencies to sign a 287(g) agreement now. By joining forces with ICE, you’re not just gaining access to these unprecedented reimbursement opportunities — you’re becoming part of a national effort to ensure the safety of every American family,” ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan said.