{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-durbin-call-for-oversight-hearings-after-whistleblower-report-alleges-trump-admin-lied-about-safety-of-unaccompanied-guatemalan-children-to-deport-them/", "Padilla, Durbin Call for Oversight Hearings After Whistleblower Report Alleges Trump Admin Lied About Safety of Unaccompanied Guatemalan Children to Deport Them", "2025-09-17", "2025", "2025-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "CA", "Alex Padilla", "P000145", "www.padilla.senate.gov", "padilla", "https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Call comes ahead of a Subcommittee hearing on Biden\u2019s management of unaccompanied children, despite the Trump Administration\u2019s ongoing flagrant disregard for unaccompanied child safety\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 After a whistleblower disclosure alleged that the Trump Administration concealed information about the safety of dozens of unaccompanied Guatemalan children they tried to deport in the dead of night, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, and Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, are requesting an oversight hearing on the Office of Refugee Resettlement\u2019s (ORR) mass child deportation efforts and apparent lies under oath.\n\nThe urgent call for a hearing comes after the disclosure alleged that at least 30 of 327 unaccompanied Guatemalan children the Administration attempted to deport without due process \u201chave indicators of being a victim of child abuse, including death threats, gang violence, human trafficking and/or have expressed fear of return to Guatemala.\u201d The disclosure contradicts Acting ORR Director Angie Salazar\u2019s sworn statement under penalty of perjury that these children had been screened for removal to ensure they would not face child abuse or human trafficking in Guatemala. ORR\u2019s criteria for removal, according to Salazar, explicitly specify that children do not \u201chave indications of child abuse/neglect perpetrated by a parent/legal guardian\u201d or \u201cindications of being a victim of trafficking.\u201d The data on these children was present in ORR\u2019s database at the time of Salazar\u2019s statement.\n\nOver Labor Day weekend, the Trump Administration attempted to unlawfully remove dozens of unaccompanied Guatemalan children from the United States in the middle of the night. After a September 10 hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy J. Kelly extended a temporary restraining order to block the Administration from removing the children until September 16. The injunction is in place until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, September 18.\n\n\u201cThe allegations in the whistleblower complaint are shocking. If the Administration indeed misled the courts to justify deporting unaccompanied children who, by their own standards, should never have been on that list in the first place, that is inexcusable,\u201d said Senator Padilla. \u201cSending children back into danger is a betrayal of our moral and legal obligations. We\u2019re going to hold those responsible accountable for endangering children, starting by putting them on the record in the Senate.\u201d\n\n\u201cI am deeply disturbed by the whistleblower allegations that the Trump Administration misled the courts to justify deporting unaccompanied children at risk of trafficking and abuse. Protecting children should be a bipartisan issue. When I was Chair of this Committee, I held a hearing with Biden Administration officials who oversaw unaccompanied children,\u201d said Senator Durbin. \u201cI call on Chairs Grassley and Cornyn to do the same and hold an oversight hearing with Administration officials so that we can get to the bottom of this issue in a bipartisan fashion.\u201d\n\nUnder the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), unaccompanied children are generally afforded the opportunity to appear before an immigration judge before they can be removed. However, the Guatemalan children the Trump Administration suddenly targeted did not have this opportunity \u2014 likely violating the TVPRA \u2014 and the Administration failed to explain to them why their immigration court cases were taken off the docket.\n\nMany of these children and their families strongly objected to their return to Guatemala. In fact, a majority of Guatemalan families contacted explicitly expressed that they did not request their children\u2019s return, according to a recent report by a Guatemalan attorney general\u2019s office. This report was then later substantiated by a Department of Justice attorney representing the government at a September 10 hearing, withdrawing the government\u2019s previous statements in court claiming parents had requested that their children be returned. However, as the whistleblower disclosure alleges, the Administration continued to lie about whether they properly screened children for removal.\n\nOn Monday, Padilla, Durbin, and Representatives Jamie Raskin (D-Md.-08) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.-07) demanded answers from senior Administration officials on this cruel effort, including information on their compliance with due process and confidentiality obligations under asylum law, the TVPRA, and other statutory protections afforded to unaccompanied children by law.\n\nEarlier this year, Senator Padilla led seven Senators in sounding the alarm on troubling reports that ORR unlawfully granted expanded access to sensitive data on unaccompanied children and their sponsors to DHS\u2019 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Senators raised serious concerns that ICE could misuse this confidential information to enact mass deportations and detain immigrant families and demanded DHS Secretary Noem and HHS Secretary Kennedy immediately cease this misguided practice. In March, Padilla blasted the Trump Administration\u2019s stop work order to organizations that provide legal services for unaccompanied children and demanded they protect Congressionally mandated legal representation for these children in the immigration system.\n\nFull text of the whistleblower disclosure is available here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-durbin-call-for-oversight-hearings-after-whistleblower-report-alleges-trump-admin-lied-about-safety-of-unaccompanied-guatemalan-children-to-deport-them/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8071823976933956, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}