When 17-year-old Angelica arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border in November, her older sister Deisy began the process of applying to be Angelica’s sponsor so that the sisters could live together. Angelica was pregnant at the time, and Deisy, who has a young daughter, was eager to care for her sister and the new baby.
Deisy consented to a home study and provided the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the government agency responsible for unaccompanied undocumented minors, with her passport and fingerprints — which she was assured would not be used in relation to immigration enforcement.
But before the sisters could be reunited, President Donald Trump took office and his administration changed the sponsorship rules, making it nearly impossible for undocumented adults to sponsor children. Despite Angelica and her infant daughter having a loving home awaiting them, they are trapped in an ORR shelter.
“There is nothing that I want more than to live with my sister,” Angelica wrote in an April court declaration. “I don’t think it is fair that the government keeps me in custody when I could live safely with my sister. I want my baby to grow up with family, not in a shelter,” she wrote in a separate declaration that same month.
Angelica is one of five migrant children who are named plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services, which encompasses ORR. The children, identified in court records only by their first names, are asking a federal judge to block the new sponsorship restrictions so that they can leave ORR shelters and live with their loved ones.
Trump administration officials have claimed that their harsh immigration policies are aimed at keeping violent criminals out of the country. But many of the people forcibly removed from the U.S. since Trump’s inauguration entered the country legally and have no criminal record. And several of the administration’s immigration policies specifically endanger children and other vulnerable populations seeking safety in the U.S.
More than 20 years ago, Congress decided that unaccompanied kids who cross the border should be cared for by an agency focused on their well-being rather than an immigration enforcement agency. Lawmakers tasked ORR with this duty and directed the agency to place children “in the least restrictive setting that is in the best interest of the child.”
In recent years, kids typically spent about a month in an ORR shelter until they were released to an adult sponsor — who could use a foreign passport or identification card and a birth certificate to verify their identity.
But since March, ORR requires prospective sponsors to present either a form of U.S. identification or a foreign passport indicating legal status in the U.S. The next month, ORR added proof-of-income requirements that are unavailable to people who cannot legally work in the U.S. and are paid in cash.
“What they are asking for now — if you are undocumented, it’s literally weeding you out. Even if you are the parent, which is unheard of,” Karina Ramos, a managing attorney at Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said in an interview. Immigrant Defenders, a named plaintiff in the suit, represents nearly 2,000 unaccompanied children in immigration cases.
“What they are asking for now — if you are undocumented, it’s literally weeding you out. Even if you are the parent, which is unheard of.”
- Karina Ramos, Immigrant Defenders Law Center
Even if a prospective sponsor is able to provide the necessary documentation under the new rules, ORR is simultaneously expanding the amount of biometric information it collects on sponsors and members of their households — creating a disincentive for people without legal status to apply.
Starting in February, ORR began requiring adult sponsors and members of their households to submit to fingerprint-based background checks. The following month, the agency began requiring DNA testing in cases where a sponsor claims to be biologically related to the child. At the same time, ORR has begun assisting the Department of Homeland Security with immigration enforcement operations, ProPublica reported earlier this month.
“It’s creating such a chilling effect,” Ramos said of ORR’s new biometric data requirements.
As a result, kids are left stranded in ORR shelters indefinitely, despite having family members and friends eager to care for them at home. In fiscal years 2021 through 2024, kids remained in ORR custody for an average of 27 to 33 days. By February, that number had climbed to 49 days. In March, it was 112 days. For April, it was 217 days. Meanwhile, the number of children released from ORR custody each month has plummeted. In February, 1,858 children were released, in March, it was 343 children, and in April, just 45 children were released.
During Trump’s first term, ORR temporarily implemented a narrower set of sponsorship restrictions, which also increased lengths of stay in ORR shelters. This “resulted in higher levels of defiance, hopelessness, and frustration among children, along with more instances of self-harm and suicidal ideation,” according to a 2019 HHS Inspector General report.
“Children think, ‘My mom doesn’t really want me, maybe. Maybe they’re not trying hard enough — just give them the paper that they’re asking for. Why is this so difficult?’” Ramos said. “There’s a lot of emotional distress,” she continued, noting that some of the kids have even talked about voluntarily leaving the country so they can get out of the shelter.
ORR did not respond to a request for comment, but Tony Biswas, the director of the agency’s Unaccompanied Alien Children Policy Division, said in a declaration that changes to sponsorship requirements are intended to prevent fraud and abuse.
Angelica’s baby was due in February, and she expected they would be released to Deisy in April, after the baby was vaccinated. But in March, Angelica’s case manager told Deisy that her foreign passport was no longer an acceptable form of identification.
When she was unable to produce the required documentation, the case manager recommended she withdraw her sponsorship application and find someone else — even a potential stranger. But everyone Deisy approached was “too afraid,” she wrote in a declaration. “No one I asked would promise to sponsor her, out of fear that it would lead to them being arrested or deported.”
Biswas, the ORR official, suggested in his declaration that Angelica was still in ORR custody because an adult in Deisy’s home was arrested in late January for child sex abuse. But Deisy informed ORR of the arrest, and the agency conducted a home study to ensure he no longer lived in the home, the plaintiff’s lawyers wrote in a court filing.
“This whole process has made me feel terrible,” Angelica wrote in her declaration. “I was going to get to leave, but they changed all the rules when we were just waiting for vaccines for my daughter. And now I’m stuck here, and I want nothing more than to leave with my baby.”
Another plaintiff, identified in court records as Leo, arrived in the U.S. in February 2023 and was released to his sister after spending about 41 days in ORR custody. He was happy living with his sister in Georgia, where he attended school, played sports with friends and visited the lake and waterpark nearby. But in March, he was detained in another ORR shelter after being taken into ICE custody for driving without a license, Biswas wrote.
“It’s even harder being detained again than it was the first time, since I had the experience of getting to be with family and then had that taken away,” Leo wrote in a declaration. “Sometimes I think that if I start to feel sad and think too much about why this is happening to me, I will get sick. I tell myself that I must have the maturity to accept things head on and see what God has in store,” the 17-year-old boy continued.
Fifteen-year-old Liam arrived in the U.S. by himself in January, hoping to reunite with his mother and two sisters. His mom had already sponsored one of his sisters, so “she knew what to do,” Liam wrote in a declaration. She provided her passport, proof of address and completed a successful home study — but Liam’s case manager told him that was no longer enough. His mom is still trying to obtain the necessary documentation, but in the meantime, Liam has been shipped from a shelter in Kansas to New York, and he doesn’t know when he’ll see his family next.
“I really miss my mom,” he wrote in a declaration. “If I imagine arriving at her house, and opening the door, the first thing I am going to do is hug her. I’m going to hug her for a really long time. Then I just want to talk to her, about anything. I just want to talk and be together again.”