WASHINGTON—In an attempt to ease the transition of vulnerable young refugees into an unfamiliar new home, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced a new campaign Friday which aims to reunite immigrant children with their original arresting officer. “We intend to extend every effort to find the ICE officer who first arrested a given child all those months ago and then send them to the child’s school or foster home to pick him or her up for what we’re sure will be a highly emotional and tearful reunion,” said ICE deputy director and acting director Ronald Vitiello in a statement to the press in which he attempted to address allegations of trauma inflicted on young migrants at the U.S.–Mexico border. “In many cases, these children have been completely separated from their arresting officer for months. Some of them are even living in environments where they never see any law enforcement agents at all, let alone heavily armed officers in body armor. It’s only right we see that they are put back in the care of the officer who originally apprehended, handcuffed, and detained them. We won’t rest until every immigrant child is back safely in the arms of the ICE agent they know best.” Vitiello went on to proudly state that hundreds of such reunions had already happened outside homes, schools, and places of worship across the country.

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