These expulsions would violate the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s “child welfare mandate and this country’s long-standing obligation to these children,” Wyden said in a letter to Angie Salazar, the acting director of the Department of Health and Human Services office responsible for unaccompanied migrant children who arrive in the United States. Citing unidentified whistleblowers, Wyden’s letter said that children without a parent or legal guardian as a sponsor, or without a pending asylum case, “will be forcibly removed from the country.” “Unaccompanied children are among the most vulnerable entrusted to the government’s care,” Wyden wrote. “In many cases, these children and their families have had to make the unthinkable choice to face danger and separation in search of safety.”

Sources close to the process of expelling the migrant children confirmed this to CNN, which was the first to report on the matter.

According to these sources, the Trump administration has identified more than 600 children from Guatemala in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) who could soon be sent back to their home countries.

While the government has described the process as repatriation, implying it would be a voluntary act, rather than deportation, which entails forced removal, several people have expressed skepticism that the children, of various ages, would be able to understand what they are agreeing to by leaving the country.

However, it is unknown what process the administration plans to use to expel the children, who do not have a parent in the United States, although they may have a relative. to claim them.

According to data from the Office of the Administration for Children and Families, part of HHS, the United States had 2,198 unaccompanied minors in custody in July. However, the available information does not reveal their nationalities.

The majority of minors who cross the land border between the United States and Mexico alone come from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, according to the NGO 'Save the Children'.

Repatriation also poses a challenge for the Trump administration in light of the Flores Agreement, which has been in force for three decades. A federal court in Los Angeles, California, is currently overseeing implementation of the pact, which the US government has sought to terminate.

The pact, which was signed in 1997 after years of litigation, establishes that federal authorities cannot hold undocumented minors in detention centers for more than 20 days and their safety and well-being must be guaranteed.