The Trump administration’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) has proposed more strict vetting of in-country sponsors for unaccompanied minors arriving at the border, and the ability to assess the “dangerousness” of those teens based on things like possible gang-related tattoos.
“ORR is proposing these requirements in response to concerns identified by external and internal investigations of the safety of UAC who have been released from ORR custody, which include instances of suspected document fraud, identity fraud, identity misrepresentation, alias use, shared contact information, and exploitation,” said notice of the proposed rulemaking, posted this month in the Federal Register.
The proposed rules relate to the Unaccompanied Alien Children program, which handles youth who arrive at the border from noncontiguous countries in search of asylum or similar protections. While they are apprehended by Customs and Border Patrol, these minors are turned over to ORR, which arranges for temporary shelter while a suitable sponsor in the United States is found. Those are often parents or relatives already in the U.S., and the youth remains with them as their case for asylum progresses.
The agency wants to add a proof of income standard to the vetting process, without setting firm expectations on how much money a sponsor must make to be considered suitable. It would also limit the number of acceptable documents that can be used to prove a sponsor’s identity, and it makes mandatory background checks for all members of a sponsor household.
The Trump administration attempted to unilaterally put most of these vetting policies in place last year, and was challenged in court over that attempt.
While the majority of the proposed rule pertains to how safe the sponsors are, ORR also plans to use new permission included in the One Big Beautiful Bill to determine what risk the youth pose. It notes that the agency now has funds to determine if an ‘‘unaccompanied alien child poses a danger to self or others by conducting an examination of the unaccompanied alien child for gang-related tattoos and other gang-related markings and covering such tattoos or markings while the child is in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.’’
Per the notice in the Register, ORR is seeking public feedback on how it should determine the nature of such tattoos, and what constitutes a gang-related tattoo or marking. Left unsaid in this proposal are any rules or policies around what happens if ORR determines a youth to be dangerously affiliated with gangs.
