McAllen, Texas– Legal advocates filed a motion Tuesday to block U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents from urging migrant children to enter the country without their parents Deport themselves voluntarily Under federal policy introduced last year.
Border agents who apprehend unaccompanied migrant children who enter the country illegally are required, under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, to send them to a federal shelter under a different agency, the Office of Refugee Resettlement. In shelters, children have access to attorneys and an immigration judge, and can speak with their parents by phone before agreeing to self-deportation or seeking other options.
The new policy offers the option of self-deportation before children enter the shelter, a practice that began in September 2025, according to testimony from Customs and Border Protection officials filed in the lawsuit.
If children refuse to return voluntarily, the policy threatens to detain them for long periods of time. Arrest and prosecute their adult sponsors living in the United States, preventing them from applying for a visa in the future, the attorneys said in the motion filed Tuesday.
Lawyers representing Guatemalan children after the government Failed deportation attempt Dozens of them on a random overnight flight in August say the policy violates the injunction currently in place. The injunction prohibits the government from deporting any unaccompanied Guatemalan minors unless they have gone through certain immigration court procedures.
The lawyers are also asking the judge to expand the injunction to include children from other countries, except Mexico and Canada.
CBP did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Some children told lawyers that clients threatened them, yelled at them, and forced them to sign documents they did not fully understand, sometimes because of language barriers.
One girl said that an officer forcefully convinced her to sign the papers after she injured her leg in a car accident and was denied medical treatment.
“I thought I should sign, but I didn’t know why or why,” she said in a written statement filed with the court.
These minors are not getting the opportunities afforded to them under federal law, said Mishan Wro, an attorney with the National Youth Law Center.
“It is clear that threatening children with prolonged detention while they are afraid and not given the opportunity to speak to a lawyer or their family before making a decision has serious implications for their future,” Rowe said Tuesday.
CBP official Michael Julian wrote in his declaration filed with the court Tuesday that agents only offer the option of self-deportation to some unaccompanied children who cross illegally, and that it is an option provided orally, not in writing.
Attorneys found 13 cases in South Texas where children were exposed to the new policy, but they believe there are more.
“We believe this is happening to many, many children and that the 13 children mentioned in our proposal are just those who have slipped through the cracks,” said Kate Thalmore, senior counsel at the Institute for Constitutional Defense and Protection.
Lawyers were only able to find out and intervene on behalf of the 13 children, she said, because even though they had signed documents to return to their country under the care of CBP, a flight could not be found in time and they were sent to a shelter.
The federal government will have two weeks to file its objection and then a judge can decide to step in and stop applying the policy to Guatemalan children and whether to expand protections to include children from other countries.