On August 10th, 2017, the ACLU, alongside 376 other organizations from across the country, sent a letter to Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke, urging her to cease the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) “surge initiative,” which targets children seeking protection at our borders and their sponsors for detention, deportation, and potential criminal prosecution. While the stated purpose of this new initiative is to disrupt human smuggling networks, the ACLU and its partners are alarmed by its tactics and fear that these actions will have the opposite effect, putting vulnerable children in further danger and resulting in costly and inhumane detention of parents and unaccompanied children.