The Trump administration is deliberately targeting unaccompanied immigrant children for rapid deportation as part of a push to boost removal numbers, a new federal lawsuit contends.
The Jewish Family and Community Services of Pittsburgh (JFCS) and six immigrant clients have teamed up to sue the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and USCIS in Pennsylvania, The Guardian reported Wednesday.
"What a society will tolerate happening to children, they will tolerate happening to anyone," said Dana Gold, JFCS’s chief operating officer.
The suit alleges children are being repatriated "as a means to increase deportation numbers," despite qualifying for protections to remain in the U.S. legally under as Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) status or T nonimmigrant status for trafficking survivors.
Since June, JFCS says it has seen immigration judges order children removed rather than granting time to pursue these legal pathways, even in cases where SIJ status had already been approved.
Hearings are reportedly being scheduled with days' notice, dockets compressed into biweekly sessions, and judges allegedly "penalized" for giving children more time.
Court records cited in the filing say the Philadelphia court intends to complete its juvenile docket by November 2026.
Among the plaintiffs is a 17-year-old trafficking survivor from Guatemala, identified as FYCT, whom federal officials confirmed was trafficked, yet was ordered deported last month while her T-status application was pending.
Another client, a 19-year-old Vietnamese asylum seeker known as KTN who fled abuse by his father, had his SIJ application approved in May but was still ordered deported in July.
DHS said in a statement that it is "laser-focused on protecting children" and that "all illegal aliens receive due process." The Executive Office for Immigration Review declined to comment.
The lawsuit follows the federal government's decision to end a contract funding legal representation for more than 20,000 unaccompanied children, leaving many to face judges without lawyers. JFCS says hundreds of its own clients are now at risk, with hearings often running from early morning into the evening.
"We truly have no idea what we are sending them back to, or who we are sending them back to in some cases," said Sarah Hough, JFCS's director of immigration legal services “We are talking about children, and the way that court is set up right now, it is not in any way in the best interest of these kids.”