Border officials directed to give migrant teens the option of returning home voluntarily

The Trump administration instructed Customs and Border Protection officials this week to offer migrant teenagers the option of voluntarily returning to their home countries, instead of being sent to government-overseen shelters, upending longstanding U.S. immigration policy, two U.S. officials told CBS News Wednesday.

For many years, U.S. immigration officials were required to transfer all unaccompanied migrant children — or those who entered the U.S. without permission and without their parents or legal guardians — to the Department of Health and Human Services, if they hailed from countries outside of Mexico and Canada. HHS oversees a network of shelters where these minors are housed until they turn 18 or can be placed with a sponsor, who historically has been a U.S.-based relative.

But now, CBP officials have been directed to offer unaccompanied migrant children who are 14 or older the option to self-deport to their countries of origin, the officials said. If the teenagers take that option, U.S. immigration officials would facilitate their prompt return to their native countries. If not, the teens would still be transferred to HHS' Office of Refugee Resettlement.