Not just criminals: children, migrants with no criminal record in ICE detention

Not just criminals: children, migrants with no criminal record in ICE detention.

War of words between Trump, Zelensky puts peace plan in peril.

Now one month into the Trump administration, more complete information is coming to light on those being targeted in the recent ICE raids and deportation campaign. The Trump administration has repeatedly insisted that they are targeting “the worst” violent criminals (and those charged with violent crimes). However, many individuals with no criminal convictions or pending charges in the US are also getting caught up.

Of the detainees in ICE custody, 41% now have no criminal conviction or pending charges, compared with 28% last year. This number also includes children, many of whom have entered the US with no parent or guardian.

Asked for comment, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin stated that even detainees with no criminal record are “far from innocent”. This week, the Trump administration issued a “stop work” order for organizations receiving federal funds to provide legal assistance for unaccompanied children.

Grim reality for deportees, including children

Today, a plane carrying 135 undocumented migrants landed in Costa Rica by agreement with the Trump administration. Most of those on this flight are not Costa Rican or even from Central or South America. In fact, most of them are from Asian countries. Of the 135 people on this plane, 65 are children and at least two are pregnant women.

Meanwhile at a hotel in Panama City, nearly 300 migrants are being held with reports indicating that they are not allowed to leave their rooms. These migrants hail from disparate countries including India, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, and others. According to an Iranian woman living in Panama who has been in contact with some of the detainees, several children are among those being held in the hotel. They have been denied legal representation and are not allowed to leave their rooms, even to eat.

Elsewhere in Panama, about 100 detainees are held in a sweltering jungle camp called San Vicente. According to Panamanian officials, many of the camp’s detainees were previously at the hotel but refused to return to their home countries. One of the detainees, a Christian Iranian woman, described the camp as looking “like a zoo” with “fenced cages”. According to Panamanian officials, none of the detainees in this camp have criminal records. Even here, there are at least eight children.

Many of these detainees are caught in a sort of international limbo. In some cases, home countries have refused to take them back. Additionally, while many migrants have agreed to return to their home countries, others have not for fear of being persecuted and, in some cases, targeted for death. Their future remains uncertain.

War of words between Trump, Zelensky puts peace plan in peril

This week, the Trump administration’s hopes for bringing the now three-year-old Ukraine War to a peaceful resolution seem to have begun unraveling.

Earlier this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz met with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in Saudi Arabia. Other members of the Trump administration had previously met one-on-one with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials, both in Ukraine and at the recent Munich Security Conference. Despite this, Zelensky and many of Ukraine’s Western allies took exception to the fact that there was no Ukrainian representative at the meeting in Saudi Arabia.

This aggravated already sore feelings about statements from Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week, indicating that Ukraine’s aspirations of joining NATO and regaining its pre-2014 borders were “unrealistic” in any potential peace settlement.

The war of words continued to escalate after Zelensky accused Trump of being trapped in Putin’s “disinformation bubble”. Trump then posted a lengthy Truth Social rant in which he referred to Zelensky as a dictator and said he “better move fast or he is not going to have a country left.”

Mineral melee

There is another dimension to the spat between Washington and Kiev that goes well beyond words.

On Feb. 7, Zelensky presented Reuters journalists with a previously classified map of Ukraine’s immense mineral resources. He had a message to Trump: “Let’s do a deal”. Zelensky offered to partner with the US to develop and exploit these mineral resources in exchange for future security guarantees. “The Americans helped the most, and therefore the Americans should earn the most. And they should have this priority, and they will. I would also like to talk about this with President Trump.”

Zelensky’s pitch may have worked a little too well. On the 12th, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant traveled to Ukraine to meet Zelensky. He made an offer for Ukraine’s minerals, which Zelensky rejected. The offer reportedly was for the US to take a 50% stake in Ukraine’s mineral deposits, but it’s not clear if any security guarantees came with it.

Trump responded furiously to Zelensky’s rejection, telling reporters on Air Force One that Bessant was treated “rudely”. After Bessant “traveled many hours on the train”, Trump said when he arrived, “Zelensky was sleeping and unavailable to meet him”. Trump also said that Bessant “went there to get a document signed” and “came back empty [handed]”. Trump’s disappointment apparently prompted him to write the “dictator” post

Hard ball

Last week at the Munich Security conference, US officials apparently came back with another offer, which Zelensky told his aides to refuse. This proposal was later leaked, possibly by the Ukrainian side.

The proposal would have essentially put Ukraine in an economic chokehold for the foreseeable future, again with no security guarantees in sight. Not only did the US demand rights to half of all proceeds from development of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals, but also from its fossil fuels, ports, and other infrastructure.

The Trump team was essentially demanding around $500 billion as recompense for the roughly $120 billion dollars in military and financial aid the US has given Ukraine during the war. Per the Telegraph, “If this draft were accepted, Trump’s demands would amount to a higher share of Ukrainian GDP than reparations imposed on Germany” in the Post World War I Versailles treaty of 1919.

Hard ‘no’

Zelensky answered yesterday that he would not pauper his country with such a heavily lopsided deal, especially when the US, at the time, had offered no substantial security guarantees.

This prompted further backlash from Trump’s surrogates today. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said on Fox News that Ukraine should “tone it down, take a hard look and sign that deal”. In a later White House press briefing, Waltz moderated his own tone: “There can be, in my view, nothing better for Ukraine’s future and for the security than to have the United States invested in their prosperity long-term”.

After all this tumult, the day may have ended on a positive note. Zelensky met today with Trump’s special Ukraine-Russia envoy Keith Kellogg. There was no joint press conference afterward, but their private exchange seems to have been much more fruitful than any other US-Ukrainian meetings in recent weeks. On Twitter, Zelensky called his meeting with Kellogg “productive” and said that they had discussed “effective security guarantees”. In a later post, Zelensky said his meeting with Kellogg was “one that restores hope“

Not just criminals: children, migrants with no criminal record in ICE detention – National & International News – THU 20Feb2025