Ogden Group Helps Parents Plan For The Worst: ICE Separating Them From Their Kids

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy guides the apprehension and detention of parents or caretakers of minor children, whether or not those children have legal status in the U.S. Though on its website, ICE stipulates that the policy could change at any time and does not provide legal rights.

Still, the directive maintains that ICE officials should ask about parental status when they first encounter someone and should allow a parent or guardian to make arrangements for their kids before being taken into custody.

But Zain Lakhani, director of migrant rights and justice at the nonprofit Women’s Refugee Commission, said ICE often violates its own policy.

Violations like this are happening across the U.S., Lakhani said, not just in border states or places with high-profile ICE surges.