US Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) has hired a firm accused of torture to help track down undocumented migrant children who arrive in the country alone.

Documents obtained by the Guardian show ICE hired MVM Inc. to put extra “boots on the ground” to locate the children for what it characterises as “safety and wellness checks”.

But previous reporting by the newspaper shows the aim is in fact to deport or prosecute the children.

MVM was sued by two Guatemalan fathers and their respective children in 2024 for “torture, enforced disappearance and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment” over its role in family separations during the first Trump administration.

“MVM physically took thousands of children away from their parents and transferred them to shelters,” said the lawsuit, which was filed in a California federal court.

The company, which has previously worked with the CIA in Iraq, asked the judge to dismiss the case, saying it had “openly denounced” the family separation policy and should not be blamed for government policy.

The two children were 16 and three years old when they were separated from their fathers in 2017 “with the substantial assistance of MVM”, says the lawsuit, which is ongoing.

A judge dismissed some of the claims on procedural grounds in 2025 but let the case continue based on the claims of torture, enforced disappearance, and inhuman and degrading treatment.

A spokesperson for ICE said accusations the agency was targeting or arresting children were false “and an attempt to demonise law enforcement”.

“Rather than separating families, ICE asks parents if they want to be removed with their children or if the child should be placed with someone safe the parent designates.”

Last year, 32 people died in ICE custody, making it the deadliest year for the agency in decades.

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