Unaccompanied Alien Children

What this funds

The Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) program provides for the shelter, care, and placement of unaccompanied alien children who are referred to ACFC's Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) by another federal agency or department. Typically, UAC are referred after being apprehended at a border, port of entry, or in the interior of the United States by Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including Customs and Border Protection officers or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The program was transferred to ORR in the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-296), with further requirements laid out in the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-79), the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-457) (TVPRA), and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (P.L. 113-4). UAC are placed into ORR custody and provided care until they are appropriately and safely released to a vetted sponsor that is, in most cases, their parent or legal guardian, close relative, or another adult recommended by their parents. In some cases, when no appropriate sponsor is available, the program provides care to a child until immigration proceedings conclude, the child is granted lawful immigration status, or the child turns 18 years of age, whichever occurs first. The UAC program funds private non- profit and for-profit organizations to provide legally mandated care and services such as shelter, other support services to children in ORR custody. Standard facilities receive grants or contracts to provide shelter, including therapeutic care, foster care, shelter with increased staff supervision, and secure care. Standard facilities include those that are licensed by their state to provide residential care for children, or that meet the requirements of state licensing that would otherwise be applicable if they are located in a state that does not allow state licensing of programs providing care and services to unaccompanied alien children. (Such states include Texas, Florida, and South Carolina.) Approximately 58 percent of budget costs go directly to care for children in ORR shelters, and 22 percent is for Legal, Post-Release, and Child Advocate Services. Other services for children such as health care and sponsor unification services, including background checks, make up approximately 10 percent of the budget. Administrative expenses to carry out the mission total almost 10 percent of the budget, of which 2 percent is dedicated to technology and data platforms for managing a child's case from referral to discharge, including case management and monitoring of UAC, sponsor vetting and information collection, and tools to support the administration of the shelter network. While the Administration has successfully created a whole-of-government disincentive to illegal immigration, migration numbers vary considerably from one year to the next, even from month to month, and are largely unpredictable. Referral numbers reached approximately 49,000 children in FY 2018 and Administration for Children, Families, and Communities Page 31 over 69,400 children in FY 2019. There was a noticeable drop in referrals in FY 2020 to 15,381 due to the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent public health emergency order. From FY 2021 through FY ORR received a total of 98,356 referrals, with a 24 percent referral rate of children aged 12 or younger, a five percent increase from the previous year. In FY 2025, ORR received a total of 22,809 referrals, with the same referral rate for younger children as FY 2024. Of those, over 65 percent were from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Forty-five percent of children who arrived in FY 2025 were placed with a parent or legal guardian, and an additional 34 percent were placed with a close relative such as a ORR is not an immigration or law enforcement agency and does not apprehend children at the border, which is a function of DHS. ORR relies on DHS referrals, referral projections, and estimates to inform planned uses of program resources, such as bed capacity needs. ORR has sought to obtain sufficient bed capacity, using both traditional standard beds and Emergency Intake Facility (EIF) beds in facilities that adhere to FSA standards, to ensure children do not experience prolonged detention in DHS facilities, which are not designed for children, and that they are expeditiously placed in an ORR-care provider facility. The Administration's goal is to prioritize child safety and combat human trafficking while ensuring children are placed with properly vetted family members or sponsors, which is consistent with child welfare best practices and ORR's legal obligations. ORR policies for placing children and youth into care provider facilities are based on legal requirements and child welfare best practices to provide a safe environment in the least restrictive setting appropriate for the child's needs. To determine the placement setting that is in the best interests of the child, ORR considers many factors, including age, sex, safety concerns, special needs, location of potential sponsors, and siblings or other related children in ORR custody. All services, including those for children ages 12 or younger, are trauma-informed, culturally and linguistically appropriate, and age and developmentally appropriate. As of December 2025, ORR is funding a total of 9,961standard capacity beds reflecting all levels of care for UAC in its custody, including 30 secure beds through a contract. In FY 2025, ORR experienced an unprecedented low number of referrals and standard capacity is currently sufficient with operational capacity below 50 percent. Previously, when the number of children in care exceeded the standard network's operational capacity, ORR acquired additional EIF capacity. This has not been needed since the third quarter of FY 2024, and ORR does not currently maintain EIF capacity. ORR works closely with DHS partners to track migration trends and patterns and plan capacity needs as far in advance as possible. ORR is legally mandated to provide case management services to UAC, including sponsor unification services, and the government is mandated to have a policy favoring release if the child does not present a danger to self or others. As part of the sponsor vetting process, the TVPRA requires that ORR must confirm the sponsor's identity and relationship, if any, to the child and determine the sponsor's suitability to provide appropriate care for a child. DNA confirmation of a biological relationship is the primary method used to confirm relationships where a sponsor purports to be related to the child. None of the genetic material, data, or information is used by HHS or any other federal agency for any purpose other than family unification. All data, samples, and results from the genetic material are certified as destroyed by the laboratory and cannot be used for any other purpose, and HHS has not shared and will not share anything associated with genetic material with any other federal agency. Further, a birth certificate, which may be validated as authentic by consular authorities of the issuing foreign government, or original versions or legible full color copies of other legal documents are the primary method used to confirm a prospective unrelated sponsor's relationship with a child. ORR continues to review processes and consider improvements, such as additional standards and protections around sponsor vetting, proof of Administration for Children, Families, and Communities Page 32 In addition, ORR conducts a sponsor assessment and vetting to determine whether a propo

Extracted from Administration for Children, Families, and Communities, p. 9. Verbatim; nothing here is paraphrased.

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