The private security contractor in question, MVM, is being sued over the separation of two young Guatemalans from their fathers in 2017<\/p>\n
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has signed a contract with a private security firm to locate migrant children who arrived in the US without their parents, although the company is facing accusations of \u2018torture,\u2019 The Guardian has reported.
\nThe agency, which is part of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), hired the Virginia-based company MVM in mid-April to assist with its expanding effort to track down minors who had been released into communities pending immigration court proceedings, the paper said in an article on Saturday.
\nA one-year deal was signed between ICE and the contractor, which provides detention and transport services to federal immigration agencies, it added.
\nMVM is currently being sued over the separation of two Guatemalan fathers from their respective children in 2017. The lawsuit, which had been filed in a California court two years ago, alleges \u201ctorture, enforced disappearance and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment\u201d on the part of the company.
\nIts employees \u201cphysically took thousands of children away from their parents\u201d before transporting them \u201cusing unmarked vehicles, commercial airlines, and makeshift detention centers,\u201d the document read.<\/p>\n
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A DHS spokesperson said that MVM has \u201czero immigration enforcement authority\u201d and that the partnership with the firm represents the agency\u2019s \u201ccommitment to protect vulnerable children from sexual abuse and exploitation.\u201d
\n\u201cThe primary focus of this initiative is to conduct welfare checks on these children to ensure thaat they are safe and not being exploited or abused,\u201d the spokesperson stressed.
\nThe Guardian said that it had reviewed an internal ICE document last year, which suggested that it actually runs an operation aimed at deporting the children or pursuing criminal cases against them or the adults providing for them.
\n“Accusations that ICE is \u2018targeting\u2019 and arresting children are false and an attempt to demonize law enforcement,\u201d the DHS spokesperson insisted.
\nDemocratic lawmaker Delia Ramirez, who is of Guatemalan descent, has called upon Congress to monitor the arrangement between ICE and MVM.<\/p>\n
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“DHS continues to be a threat to our collective safety. It is beyond reckless to hire a company of dangerous bounty hunters, with a concerning track record of abuse, to \u2018track\u2019 immigrant children,\u201d she wrote on X on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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