Luttrell Leads Letter Addressing Concerns Over the Safety of Unaccompanied Migrant Children

WASHINGTON – Congressman Morgan Luttrell (R-TX) sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra and to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Director Robin Dunn Marcos addressing concerns over the Office of Refugee Settlement’s (ORR) failure to properly ensure the safety and wellbeing of unaccompanied children following a February 2024 report issued by the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG). Additionally, the letter also points to concerns with the Unaccompanied Children Program Foundational Rule, which would essentially codify some of ORR’s current flawed methods, which have failed to ensure the safety of unaccompanied children and does not go extensively into requiring stronger sponsor vetting procedures.

Congressman Luttrell wrote, “This state of disarray has led ORR to cut corners in ensuring appropriate sponsor vetting. In a rush to move children out of government custody, caseworkers are passing off countless minors into the hands of unproperly vetted sponsors with news reports revealing unaccompanied migrant children falling into instances of exploitation, trafficking, and working in dangerous jobs that violate child labor laws.

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“More specifically, the HHS-OIG report revealed 16 percent of unaccompanied children’s case files were absent of documentation indicating one or more required safety checks for sponsors were conducted. Furthermore, ORR also failed to conduct timely Safety and Well-Being Follow Up Calls in 22 percent of cases with 19 percent of children being released to sponsors with pending fingerprint check or child abuse and neglect registry check.”

You can read the letter in full here.

In July, Congressman Luttrell introduced bicameral legislation, the Stop Human Trafficking of Unaccompanied Migrant Children Act, to require the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to take necessary steps when placing an unaccompanied alien child with a potential sponsor inside the United States, as reports showed HHS had been unable to contact 85,000 children in the past two years. You can read more about the legislation here.