Border officials directed to give migrant teens the option of returning home voluntarily

The Trump administration instructed Customs and Border Protection officials this week to offer migrant teenagers the option of voluntarily returning to their home countries, instead of being sent to government-overseen shelters, upending longstanding U.S. immigration policy, two U.S. officials told CBS News Wednesday.

For many years, U.S. immigration officials were required to transfer all unaccompanied migrant children — or those who entered the U.S. without permission and without their parents or legal guardians — to the Department of Health and Human Services, if they hailed from countries outside of Mexico and Canada. HHS oversees a network of shelters where these minors are housed until they turn 18 or can be placed with a sponsor, who historically has been a U.S.-based relative.

But now, CBP officials have been directed to offer unaccompanied migrant children who are 14 or older the option to self-deport to their countries of origin, the officials said. If the teenagers take that option, U.S. immigration officials would facilitate their prompt return to their native countries. If not, the teens would still be transferred to HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement.

That voluntary departure policy was previously limited to unaccompanied children from Canada and Mexico. A 2008 anti-trafficking law, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, provided special legal protections for migrant children from “noncontiguous” countries, including barring officials from swiftly deporting these minors.

The Department of Homeland Security said new authorities in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act spending law allowed the Trump administration to make the policy change.

“This is a long-standing practice used to prioritize getting children back to the safety of a parent or legal guardian in their home country and is accredited in the Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2022,” DHS said in a statement. 

“The only change pursuant to the Big Beautiful Bill is expanding this option to return home to UACs from additional countries beyond Mexico and Canada,” the department added.

The policy change was first reported by CNN.

It’s unclear how many migrant teenagers will be affected by the recent directive. The number of migrants crossing the U.S. southern border illegally has plunged to levels not seen since the 1960s amid the Trump administration’s crackdown. In June, for example, Border Patrol apprehended 6,000 migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, a record monthly low that included fewer than 700 unaccompanied children.

The administration has moved aggressively to deport immigrants living in the U.S. illegally or whose legal status has been revoked, ramping up operations to arrest, detain and deport them.

But it has also launched a massive push to encourage unauthorized immigrants to self-deport, offering them a $1,000 self-deportation bonus and threatening them with arrest, fines and prosecution if they remain in the U.S. illegally.