Federal court blocks ICE from detaining unaccompanied minors once they turn 18 [View all]

Source: Politico

10/04/2025 02:44 PM EDT


A federal judge on Saturday blocked Immigration and Customs Enforcement from immediately transferring minors into federal immigration detention once they turn 18, a day after the agency rolled out changes to its policy around unaccompanied minors.

In a two-page order, Judge Rudolph Contreras — an Obama appointee on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia — sided with two immigration advocacy groups who filed an emergency motion Friday over the new policy.

Contreras blocked the agency from making any changes to how unaccompanied minors are treated once they turn 18, and from further contravening a 2021 injunction which requires ICE and the Department of Health and Human Services to pursue the least restrictive and punitive arrangements possible in addressing age-outs, the term for those unaccompanied children who turn 18 in federal custody or foster care with pending cases.

The ruling came just a day after ICE quietly rolled out a related policy to grant minors $2,500 if they agreed to leave the U.S. and withdraw their claims in immigration court once they turned 18. The policy was framed by ICE as a “strictly voluntary” way to allow unaccompanied minors to return to their home countries if they so wished.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/04/ice-minors-detention-deportation-00594267