Trump's ICE Faces Child Abuse Backlash After Hiring Firm Accused of Torture to Track Migrant Children

President Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has reportedly employed a new contractor, a private security firm, which has been accused of serious human rights abuses. This is raising alarm among legal experts and child advocates. It is the same firm that allegedly took part in torturing the inmates at Guantanamo Bay.

The Guardian reported that the hired agency is MVM Inc, which was recruited in mid-April to help track down undocumented children who made their way to the United States alone. These children were later released into communities while their immigration cases were moved to court.

ICE says the initiative is part of “safety and wellness checks.” The agency claims it wants to confirm where the children live, whether they attend school, and if they are safe from abuse or trafficking. While the ICE states they want overall information for the children’s well-being, the critics believe the actual goal is very different.

Michael Lukens, the executive director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, said, “This all seems like a ploy to do two things: one, find either kids or their sponsors to arrest and deport. Or, two, scare children into self-deporting.” He added, “It’s really deplorable. It’s really concerning.”

An internal document reviewed last year suggested ICE operations focus on deportation or criminal cases against children and their sponsors. A critic called the effort “backdoor family separation.”

However, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has rejected the claim. A spokesperson said the accusations that ICE targets children are completely false. The agency added that contractors have “zero immigration enforcement authority” and that the program aims to protect children from harm.

MVM is originally based in Virginia and employs approximately 2500 people, and has a history of working with federal agencies. It provides detention and transport services and has also worked with the CIA in the past.

However, the company faces ongoing legal trouble. In 2024, two Guatemalan fathers sued MVM, accusing it of torture, enforced disappearance, and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. The lawsuit claims MVM helped separate families during earlier immigration policies.

“MVM physically took thousands of children away from their parents,” the lawsuit states.

In their defense, MVM has denied all wrongdoing and asked the court to dismiss the case. Some claims were dropped in 2025, but key allegations remain active.

Advocates say the company has a troubling record. Reports have linked MVM to holding children in poor conditions, including in office buildings and hotels.

“We have seen MVM harm children in federal immigration custody in egregious ways for many years now,” said Neha Desai, the managing director of children’s human rights and dignity at the National Center for Youth Law. “It is both deeply disturbing and completely unsurprising that this government has hired MVM to conduct so-called ‘wellness checks’.

The contract is valid for a year, but the total value of the checks is not public.

ICE began expanding efforts last year to locate migrant children it claimed were “missing,” but Lukens said most are not lost.

“Their parents know where they are, their lawyers know where they are,” he said. “Those kids were never missing.”

A government report also found that gaps in staffing and poor communication, not trafficking, were the main reasons ICE struggled to track them.