The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is aggressively working with our interagency partners to ensure that unaccompanied migrant children are safe and unified with family members or other suitable sponsors as quickly and safely as possible.
Today, HHS and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the termination of a 2018 MOA agreement that undermined the interests of children and had a chilling effect on potential sponsors (usually a parent or close relative) from stepping up to sponsor an unaccompanied child placed in the care of HHS. In its place, DHS and HHS signed a new Memorandum of Agreement that promotes the safe and timely transfer of children. The new agreement does not change safeguards designed to ensure unaccompanied children are unified with properly vetted sponsors who can safely care for them while they await immigration proceedings.
The April 2018 agreement was decried by child advocates and immigration attorneys who believed this agreement was slanted toward immigration policy and not the best interest of the child. Opponents of the MOA believed it placed a chilling effect on qualifying sponsors (usually a parent or close relative) who would otherwise step up to sponsor an unaccompanied child placed in the care of ORR.
The termination is a significant development in the Biden administration's work to address the chilling effect this agreement has had on unaccompanied children sponsorship within the UC Program and to help unite children with family members or sponsors in the US in a timely and safe manner.
ORR has required immigration status information since 2005 to ensure the safety and well-being of UC by making sure an adequate care plan was in place taking all relevant aspects of the sponsor's situation into consideration. ORR does not disqualify potential sponsors based solely on their immigration status or for law enforcement purposes. For more information please view the new Sponsor Immigration Status and Release of Unaccompanied Alien Children policy in the ORR UAC Policy Guide. Additional policy information is available in
Section 2.5 of the Office of Refugee Resettlement Unaccompanied Alien Children Policy Guide.
Please contact Jaime Duckett if you have any questions.
Best,
