Advocates seek to halt CBP policy pressuring unaccompanied children to self-deport

McALLEN, Texas — Lawyers filed a motion Tuesday to block U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents from urging immigrant children entering the country without their parents to voluntarily expel themselves under a federal policy introduced last year.

Border agents who arrest unaccompanied immigrant children who enter the country illegally are required by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 to send them to a federal shelter under another agency, the Office of Refugee Resettlement. In shelters, children have access to lawyers and an immigration judge, and they can speak to their parents by phone before agreeing to self-deport or seek other options.

The new policy introduces the option of self-deportation before children enter the shelter, a practice that began in September 2025, according to testimony CBP officials filed in the lawsuit.

If the children refuse to return voluntarily, the policy threatens to detain them for extended periods, arrest and prosecute their adult sponsors living in the United States and bar them from applying for visas in the future, the lawyers said in Tuesday’s motion.

The lawyers, who represent Guatemalan children following the government’s failed attempt to deport dozens of them during a random overnight flight in August, say the policy violates an injunction currently in effect. The injunction prohibits the government from deporting any unaccompanied Guatemalan minor unless they have been the subject of immigration court proceedings.

The lawyers are also asking the judge to expand the injunction to cover children in other countries, excluding Mexico and Canada.

CBP did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Some children told lawyers that agents threatened them, yelled at them and forced them to sign documents they did not fully understand, sometimes because of language barriers.

One girl said an officer forcefully convinced her to sign papers after she injured her leg in a car accident and refused medical treatment.

“I thought I had to sign, but I didn’t know why or for what purpose,” she said in a written statement filed with the court.

Mishan Wroe, an attorney with the National Center for Youth Law, said these minors are not receiving the opportunities afforded to them by federal law.

“It is clearly coercive to threaten children with prolonged detention when they are afraid and have no opportunity to speak to an attorney or family before making a decision that has serious implications for their future,” Wroe said Tuesday.

Michael Julien, a CBP official, wrote in his statement filed in court Tuesday that agents only present the option of self-deportation to certain unaccompanied children crossing illegally, and that it is an option presented orally, not in writing.

Lawyers found 13 cases in South Texas where children were subject to the new policy, but they believe there are more.

“We believe this is happening to many more children and that the 13 children mentioned in our motion are just those who have fallen through the cracks,” said Kate Talmor, senior counsel at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection.

She said lawyers were only able to discover and intervene on behalf of the 13 children because, even though they signed documents to return to their country in CBP custody, no theft was found in time and they were sent to a shelter.

The federal government will have two weeks to file its opposition, then the judge can decide whether to intervene and prevent the policy from being applied to Guatemalan children and whether to extend protection to children in other countries.