WASHINGTON – White House officials pushed back Thursday against reports that ICE agents are targeting undocumented children in Florida’s foster care system, calling the claims a smear campaign against the president and immigration officers.
The controversy has been growing in South Florida over the past several weeks, amid the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration and deportation policies that have affected communities nationwide.
One unexpected critic of the policy is Florida State Sen. Ileana Garcia (R).
Earlier this month, Garcia posted on social media about one of the president’s top aides:
“Stephen Miller has made it a point to include undocumented minors in foster care, many of whom are victims of human trafficking, in his efforts to fulfill a desperate weekly quota of deportations,” she wrote. “These individuals are being picked up at the homes of foster parents. This is unacceptable! Regardless of their citizenship status.”
For the last few years, federal policy deferred action on deportations involving so-called special immigrant juveniles, which include undocumented children in state foster care systems.
That policy paused deportations for those children.
But the Trump administration changed course a few weeks ago, resuming enforcement on a case-by-case basis.
Several media reports have alleged immigration officials are targeting undocumented children in Florida’s foster care system.
At a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back on those reports, emphasizing the administration’s commitment to protecting children.
“This administration is trying to protect foster children. We are trying to keep them out of harm’s way, even if it means their parents are not law-abiding citizens,” Leavitt said. “We want to protect children. Unlike the previous administration, which allowed children to be trafficked and raped and in some cases killed because of the open border policies.”
Efforts to reach Florida’s Department of Children and Families to ask if they are cooperating with ICE were unsuccessful.