One morning this summer, a 9-year-old girl from El Salvador picked through colorful markers at a Houston-area shelter for migrant children and crafted a letter to her mom.
asserted
girl → pick → mom
"I want to be with you already," the little girl, M.R., wrote in misspelled, unpunctuated Spanish, adding hearts, a rainbow, and a large "I love you" surrounded by pink and blue dots.
asserted
I → want → dots
"I miss you a lot, mami I love you a lot mami I want to be with you.
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I → miss → you
"
The girl had begged to leave the government-run shelter where she had been held for more than seven months, an attorney for the child said.
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attorney → beg → child
She'd become distraught, telling her mom on the phone that she felt sad and lonely, that she desperately wanted a hug, that she was getting nosebleeds and thought she had an infection.
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she → become → infection
Meanwhile, as her mother, Carmen, was going through the process to regain custody, federal immigration officials instead arrested her, sending her to a Louisiana detention center though she had a pending asylum case and no criminal record.
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she → go → case
"Both of us are trapped," Carmen said in a September interview from the detention center.
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Carmen → trap → center
The process shouldn't be like this."
KFF Health News is using only the mother's first name and daughter's initials, because they fear government reprisal for sharing their story.
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they → use → story
As of September, the 9-year-old was among almost 1,900 children being held at shelters overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement, which was tasked by Congress over a decade ago with looking after unaccompanied children to separate their care from
.Instead, the second Trump administration has reconfigured the resettlement office to aid its deportation campaign.
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administration → hold → campaign
This includes holding children rather than reuniting them with family in the United States, and often using them to ensnare family members, according to interviews with families, lawyers, and child advocates, as well as reviews of court documents.
uncertain
This → include → documents
Many children in the office's care are fleeing violence or abuse in their home countries.
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children → flee → countries
Previously, the resettlement office attempted to prioritize the well-being of children in its care, said Jonathan White, a former federal health official who ran the office's unaccompanied children program for part of President Trump's first term.
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who → attempt → term
The office is legally required to place children "in the least restrictive setting" and release them "without unnecessary delay," usually to a vetted parent or other family member who is willing to care for them.
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who → require → them
Now children in the office's custody have become collateral damage as the administration seeks to advance its larger immigration policy goals, said White, a licensed clinical social worker.
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White → become → goals
He said the administration is deliberately reshaping the nation's shelter system for unaccompanied minors from a child welfare program into a detention program that encourages immigrants to leave the country.
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that → say → country
Although fewer kids are now held in the office's shelters than in past years, those who remain often find themselves trapped for months with no clear way out other than to enter long-term foster care or return to the dangerous conditions they fled, attorneys said.
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attorneys → hold → conditions
That's because their potential guardians get detained themselves or are afraid or unable to complete the sponsorship process.
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guardians → detain → process
Often, attorneys said, the office refuses to release the children even when sponsorship requirements are met, and they have to sue for the kids' release.
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they → say → release
"When a child sees no way out of detention, voluntary departure may no longer feel like a real choice," U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.) said during an Oct. 1 news conference calling attention to the administration's changes to the unaccompanied children program.
uncertain
Salinas → see → program
The Department of Homeland Security did not directly answer questions sent by KFF Health News but framed detentions of migrant children's sponsors by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of an effort to prevent kids from being harmed.
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Department → answer → kids
A federal watchdog in 2024 found that the resettlement office didn't properly screen sponsors amid a surge of unaccompanied children during President Joe Biden's term, and news reports have documented incidents of children being exploited after their release from the agency's custody.
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children → find → custody
In an unsigned email, DHS reiterated previous statements that "ICE does not separate families" and that the administration is working to locate 450,000 unaccompanied children that came during the Biden administration.
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that → reiterate → administration
It said many of the children were placed with unvetted sponsors who were smugglers and sex traffickers, a claim that has been disputed.
uncertain
that → say → sponsors
It provided a list of 16 cases in which sponsors were arrested in connection with serious crimes, including the rape of an unaccompanied child, drug trafficking, and homicide.
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sponsors → provide → child
KFF Health News also sent questions to HHS about the case and the resettlement office's treatment of unaccompanied minors.
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News → send → minors
The agency did not respond.
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agency → respond → ?
From child welfare to detention
M.R. spent about two weeks traveling to the U.S. late last year with her older sister, wading across the Rio Grande before being detained by Border Patrol officers in Texas, according to case documents.
uncertain
M.R. → spend → documents
The sisters hoped to join their mother and a brother who had fled El Salvador a few years earlier and were living in Tennessee.
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who → hop → Tennessee
Gang members murdered M.R.'s father, her uncle, and a pregnant cousin, according to Carmen, who feared for her daughter's safety, too.
uncertain
who → murder → safety
M.R.'s maternal grandmother in El Salvador hit her and her sister with a belt and open hand while caring for them, M.R. later told a social worker.
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M.R. → hit → worker
Like others arriving in the U.S. alone and without legal status, the girl and her older sister landed in a shelter thinking they would be out in days.
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they → arrive → days
Before Mr. Trump's second term, children typically waited in the resettlement office's custody for about a month while federal officials screened their relatives or other sponsors.
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officials → wait → relatives
M.R.'s brother, who arrived in the U.S. in 2024, said he stayed in a shelter for 11 days.
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he → arrive → days
The second Trump administration is arresting parents and other trusted caregivers who have come forward to get children released, has created onerous new requirements for sponsors, and has installed a former immigration official with experience in law enforcement as the head of the resettlement office.
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children → arrest → office
Average stays stretched to nearly six months, with some like M.R. staying much longer, even when they have qualified sponsors.
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they → stretch → sponsors
Alvaro Huerta of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center said during a July news briefing that a 3-year-old remained in the resettlement office's custody for 300 days.
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old → say → days
A 6-year-old girl remained in custody for seven months, Huerta said, after her father was detained while being vetted as a sponsor and then deported.
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father → remain → sponsor
When the mother arrived at an appointment in March to reunite with the girl, he said, they were sent together to an immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas, that has drawn criticism from Democratic lawmakers, advocates, and families who have reported inhumane conditions.
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who → arrive → conditions
Immigration lawyers say the administration has undermined legal protections for migrant kids while simultaneously fast-tracking deportation.
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administration → say → deportation
Children, including some as young as 1, are appearing before immigration judges alone because of administration disruptions to legal services.
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Children → include → services
…and 60 more, not listed.
The Aporia
