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Trump Targets Children to Distract from Deportation Failures

When political theater becomes reality, people in power use policy to oppress those they deem responsible for their failures

5 min readMar 14, 2025

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Photo by Siddhant Soni on Unsplash

Fulfilling a promise from Tom Homan, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported a family with five children, four of whom are U.S. citizens, one is recovering from brain cancer. Without a power of attorney allowing children to be cared for by friends or family, the alternative for a migrant family with U.S.-born children is the foster care system. For parents, whether or not to deport as a family is simple.

While not a new practice and was seen during Biden’s presidency, family detentions are going mainstream under Trump because of the expected broad use of the strategy. In anticipation of implementing the administration’s plans, ICE is reopening facilities in Dilley, Texas, and Karnes County, Texas, and private prison facilities in five states have expanded their contracts with ICE.

Both Texas facilities have a long history of human rights abuses, including reports of women and girls being sexually assaulted, and the facilities lack proper medical care.

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Arturo Dominguez
Arturo Dominguez

Written by Arturo Dominguez

Journalist covering Congress, Racial Justice, Human Rights, Cuba, Texas | Editor: The Antagonist Magazine |

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