ICE to open national call centre to find unaccompanied migrant children amid surge in partnerships

A federal agent restrains a woman on Thursday at an immigration courthouse in New York City. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to open a national call centre to help local and state law enforcement agencies find unaccompanied migrant children who entered the country illegally, according to a federal contracting document released this week.

ICE said it has an “immediate need” to establish an around-the-clock call centre in Nashville, Tennessee, capable of handling 6,000 to 7,000 daily calls to help law enforcement with “locating unaccompanied alien children.”

ICE seeks to open the call centre by the end of March and be fully operational by June. It requests information on the number of interested vendors and what technology they can use to “maximize call efficiency.”

ICE also issued another notice seeking information on vendors able to transport thousands of detainees daily from across Texas, where a new state law taking effect next year mandates all counties with a jail enter into ICE partnerships.

The proposed call centre and transport programs come as the government pours US$170 billion into immigration and border security following the passage of the Republican Party’s big bill which U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law in July. There has been an explosion of partnerships with local and state law enforcement agencies to enforce immigration laws.

The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has also included several policy changes focused on unaccompanied minors and ramped up attempts to deport them. About 2,000 unaccompanied children were in government custody as of July.

An unaccompanied migrant child is defined by the U.S. government as someone who is under 18, lacks lawful immigration status and has no parent or guardian in the country to take custody of them.

Hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied minor children have traveled to the U.S. southern border in recent years. When they enter the country, Border Patrol transfers the children to the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement which houses them in a network of shelters across the country. They can be released from the shelter system to stay with sponsors who are generally parents, relatives or family friends.

The Trump administration has been conducting a nationwide review of the 450,000 migrant children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without their parents during U.S. President Joe Biden’s term. Federal agents have intensified scrutiny on migrant children’s sponsors, requiring them to submit to DNA tests and fingerprinting among other measures. While the administration has said these efforts are intended to ensure the safety, migrant advocates are dubious given Trump’s zero-tolerance approach to immigration and mass deportation agenda.

The ICE notice did not specify why the greater Nashville area was chosen as the intended site. But CoreCivic Inc., one of the largest private detention contractors in the U.S., is headquartered there. The company, which has donated millions to GOP candidates at all levels of government, has benefited from a surge in ICE contracts.

A spokesperson for CoreCivic spokesperson did not comment on whether it would be contracted for the call centre.

ICE is also searching for vendors capable of transporting detainees from anywhere in Texas, including hospitals, private residences and traffic stops, to one of 36 different ICE offices within 30 minutes.

ICE said it anticipates six trips daily transporting around 30 detainees in SUVs under armed guard from regional hubs near each county jail, according to federal contracting documents. The vendor would be required to establish its own transport hubs within six months of receiving a contract.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to request for comment.

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Jack Brook, The Associated Press