Federal judge blocks Trump administration from sending teen migrants to adult detention centers

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras said the new policy violates an order he issued in 2021 that instructed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement not to send any migrant to an ICE detention center after they turn 18. 

Underage migrants aren't held in ICE detention centers. They're held in centers run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to ICE for comment. 

The Trump administration is now offering teen migrants a $2,500 stipend to leave the United States voluntarily, according to several reports citing a letter sent Friday by the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement to shelters housing migrant children.

Last month, another judge blocked the Trump administration from deporting certain Guatemalan minors to their home country after the government walked back claims that it intended to reunite the youths with their parents.

Judge Timothy Kelly, who issued the order, said the Trump administration could not show that any parents wanted their children back.

"That explanation crumbled like a house of cards about a week later," Kelly wrote in his order. "There is no evidence before the Court that the parents of these children sought their return."

Michelle Lapointe, a lawyer for the American Immigration Council, one of the organizations involved in the filing, told The Associated Press, "All of these are pieces of the same general policy to coerce immigrant youth into giving up their right to seek protection in the United States." 

Migrant children in the U.S. are often released into foster care or to family members as long as they're not considered a flight risk or a danger. 

Fox News' Ashley Oliver and Michael Dorgan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.