Washington, D.C., Dec. 12, 2025 — On December 12, a federal court docket in D.C. ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to comply with a long-standing court docket order that protects immigrant teenagers from being positioned in grownup detention facilities. The court docket’s order blocks a brand new ICE coverage to mechanically shuttle unaccompanied youngsters into grownup detention as soon as they flip 18.
Learn the court docket order right here and the opinion right here.
The order particularly covers youngsters who initially entered the US as unaccompanied minors and who “age out” of the custody of the Workplace of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) (the federal program that appears after unaccompanied youngsters by putting them in shelters after which later with household and/or guardians).
This federal court docket resolution enforces a 2021 everlasting injunction in Garcia Ramirez v. ICE, which requires ICE to adjust to their statutory obligations by contemplating the least restrictive setting out there for each unaccompanied little one who turns18 and to make all age-outs eligible for alternate options to detention.
“This ruling makes clear that ICE can’t secretly flout the legislation or blatantly ignore court docket orders,” stated Suchita Mathur, senior litigation legal professional with the American Immigration Council. “ICE tried to detain newly-18-year-olds as a matter after all. These are youngsters that ICE officers have discovered, in nearly all instances, don’t pose a hazard or flight danger, with sponsors, households, and neighborhood help ready for them. This resolution places a cease to that.”
Beneath a brand new coverage printed October 1, ICE informed shelters and attorneys that each one unaccompanied youngsters turning 18 can be transferred to grownup detention, even once they had protected houses and sponsors ready to obtain them. Grownup detention threatens the youngsters’ short- and long-term improvement. At the moment, ICE is holding a document variety of folks in detention, fueling overcrowding and dehumanizing circumstances like lack of satisfactory medical care, abusive remedy, and restricted entry to authorized and psychological assist. The court docket discovered that mechanically sending teenagers into grownup detention, with out contemplating safer, age-appropriate alternate options, is a violation of the legislation.
“Right now’s ruling sends a robust message: ICE can’t put youngsters in harmful, overcrowded amenities simply because they turned 18,” stated Mark Fleming, affiliate director of federal litigation on the Nationwide Immigrant Justice Middle. “There are safer, lawful choices that hold younger folks linked to highschool, household, and neighborhood. That’s what the legislation requires, and that’s what this order restores.”
The court docket’s ruling requires ICE to right away cease following its October 1 steerage and to take away anybody positioned below detention in consequence.
Learn the court docket order right here and the opinion right here.
