Unaccompanied Alien Children: Actions Needed to Ensure Children Receive Required Care in DHS Custody
Highlights
What GAO Found
Within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued policies and procedures to evaluate, or screen, unaccompanied alien children (UAC)—those under 18 years old with no lawful immigration status and no parent or legal guardian in the United States available to provide care and physical custody—as required by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVPRA). However, CBP's Border Patrol agents and Office of Field Operations (OFO) officers who screen UAC have not consistently applied the required screening criteria or documented the rationales for decisions resulting from screening. Specifically, under TVPRA, DHS is to transfer UAC to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), but may allow UAC from Canada and Mexico to return to their home countries, that is, to be repatriated, if DHS determines that UAC (1) are not victims of a severe form of trafficking in persons, (2) are not at risk of trafficking upon return, (3) do not have a fear of returning due to a credible fear of persecution, and (4) are able to make an independent decision about returning. GAO found that agents made inconsistent screening decisions, had varying levels of awareness about how they were to assess certain screening criteria, and did not consistently document the rationales for their decisions. For example, CBP policy states that UAC under age 14 are presumed generally unable to make an independent decision, but GAO's analysis of CBP data and a random sample of case files from fiscal year 2014 found that CBP repatriated about 93 percent of Mexican UAC under age 14 from fiscal years 2009 through 2014 without documenting the basis for decisions. Providing guidance on how CBP agents and officers are to assess against UAC screening criteria could better position CBP to meet legal screening requirements, and ensuring that agents document the rationales for decisions would better position CBP to review the appropriateness of these decisions.
DHS has policies in place to implement UAC care requirements, such as providing meals, and GAO's observations and interviews at 15 CBP facilities indicate that CBP generally provided care consistent with these policies at the time of GAO's visits. However, DHS does not collect complete and reliable data on care provided to UAC or the length of time UAC are in DHS custody. GAO analyzed available data on care provided to nearly 56,000 UAC apprehended by Border Patrol in fiscal year 2014 and found that agents documented 14 of 20 possible care actions for fewer than half of the UAC (the remaining 6 actions were documented for more than 50 percent of the UAC). Also, OFO has a database to record UAC care, but officers at most ports of entry do not do so. Developing and implementing processes to help ensure agents and officers record UAC care actions would provide greater assurance that DHS is meeting its care and custody requirements. Further, the interagency process to refer and transfer UAC from DHS to HHS is inefficient and vulnerable to errors because it relies on e-mails and manual data entry, and documented standard procedures, including defined roles and responsibilities, do not exist. DHS and HHS have experienced errors, such as assigning a child to two shelters at once, and holding an empty bed for 14 days at a shelter while HHS officials had placed the child elsewhere. Jointly developing a documented interagency process with defined roles and responsibilities could better position DHS and HHS to have a more efficient and effective process to refer, transfer, and place UAC in shelters.
Why GAO Did This Study
From fiscal years 2009 through 2014, DHS apprehended more than 200,000 UAC, and the number of UAC apprehended in fiscal year 2014 (about 74,000) was more than four times larger than that for fiscal year 2011 (about 17,000). On the journey to the United States, many UAC have traveled thousands of miles under dangerous conditions.
The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 included a provision for GAO to, among other things, review how DHS cares for UAC. This report examines, among other things, the extent to which DHS has developed policies and procedures to (1) screen all UAC as required and (2) care for all UAC as required. GAO reviewed TVPRA and other legal requirements, DHS policies for screening and caring for UAC, fiscal year 2009 through 2014 apprehension data on UAC, and 2014 Border Patrol UAC care data. GAO also randomly sampled and analyzed case files of Mexican UAC whom Border Patrol apprehended in fiscal year 2014. GAO interviewed DHS and HHS officials in Washington, D.C., and at Border Patrol and OFO facilities in Arizona, California, and Texas selected on the basis of UAC apprehension data.
Recommendations
GAO recommends that DHS, among other things, provide guidance on how agents and officers are to apply UAC screening criteria, ensure that screening decisions are documented, develop processes to record reliable data on UAC care, and document the interagency process to transfer UAC from DHS to HHS. DHS concurred with the recommendations.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Homeland Security | To better ensure that DHS complies with TVPRA requirements for training, screening, and transferring UAC to HHS, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to develop and implement TVPRA training for OFO officers at airports who have substantive contact with UAC. | In 2016, CBP began developing a new UAC distance learning course. In January 2020, CBP provided documentation that it had completed the UAC course and uploaded it into CBP's training system. Among other things, the course includes scenarios that require officers to determine whether certain UACs can be repatriated. The 2020 course replaced an existing UAC training course, which was assigned as mandatory to all law enforcement officers in CBP from 2011 to 2020. Further, CBP identified the officers required to complete the training annually. By developing and implementing this training, CBP officers at airports who have substantive contact with UAC should be better positioned to comply... with TVPRA requirements.
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| Department of Homeland Security | To better ensure that DHS complies with TVPRA requirements for training, screening, and transferring UAC to HHS, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to revise the Form 93 to include indicators or questions that agents and officers should ask UAC to better assess (1) a child's ability to make an independent decision to withdraw his or her application for admission to the United States and (2) credible evidence of the child's risk of being trafficked if returned to his or her country of nationality or last habitual residence. | In July 2015, we reported that U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) Form 93-the primary tool CBP's Border Patrol agents and Office of Field Operations officers use to screen UAC and document the resulting assessments did not include indicators or questions for all Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVPRA) screening criteria that they are to assess before repatriating an unaccompanied alien child. First, we found that the form did not provide indicators or suggested questions for agents and officers to use to assess, in accordance with CBP policy, whether unaccompanied alien children (UAC) from Canada and Mexico are able to make an independent decision to...
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| Department of Homeland Security | To better ensure that DHS complies with TVPRA requirements for training, screening, and transferring UAC to HHS, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to provide guidance to Border Patrol agents and OFO officers that clarifies how they are to implement the TVPRA requirement to transfer to HHS all Mexican UAC who have fear of returning to Mexico owing to a credible fear of persecution. | In response to another recommendation, in August 2018, CBP finalized a revised Form 93 which Border Patrol and OFO incorporated into their automated data systems. To accompany the revised form, CBP developed a reference guide. The reference guide clarifies the four fear of return questions on the CBP Form 93. It also provides alternate questions Border Patrol agents and CBP officers can ask to elicit a response from the UAC. Further, the guidance provides examples of follow up questions that may assist agents and officers in assessing whether the child has a fear of return. Moreover, the reference guide clarifies that agents and officers must not judge or review the nature of the fear;...
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| Department of Homeland Security | To better ensure that DHS complies with TVPRA requirements for training, screening, and transferring UAC to HHS, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to develop and implement guidance on how Border Patrol agents and OFO officers are to implement the TVPRA requirement to transfer to HHS all Canadian and Mexican UAC who are victims of a severe form of trafficking in persons. | In August 2018, CBP finalized a revised Form 93, which Border Patrol and OFO incorporated into their automated data systems. To accompany the revised form, CBP developed a reference guide. The reference guide includes potential human trafficking indicators and questions Border patrol agents and OFO officers are to ask UACs to help them determine if the UAC may have been a victim or is at risk of becoming a victim of a trafficking if repatriated. Further, the reference guide provides examples of responses that may indicate the UAC has been or might be trafficked in the future. In addition, the reference guide states that after reviewing the evidence, Border Patrol agents and CBP officers...
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| Department of Homeland Security | To better ensure that DHS complies with TVPRA requirements for training, screening, and transferring UAC to HHS, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to ensure that Border Patrol agents document the basis for their decisions when assessing screening criteria related to (1) an unaccompanied alien child's ability to make an independent decision to withdraw his or her application for admission to the United States, and (2) whether UAC are victims of a severe form of trafficking in persons. | In August 2018, CBP finalized a revised Form 93 that included new questions agents and officers are to consider when assessing a UAC's ability to make an independent decision and whether there is credible evidence of the risk of the UAC being trafficked upon their return to their country of origin. The questions are embedded within the revised Form 93, and Border Patrol agents are required to ask and record them, according to documentation CBP provided to GAO in August 2019. Further, the Form 93 includes sections requiring Border Patrol agents to document the basis for their independent decision and trafficking assessments. According to Border Patrol training documentation from March...
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| Department of Homeland Security | To better ensure that DHS complies with TVPRA requirements for training, screening, and transferring UAC to HHS, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to determine which agents and officers who have substantive contact with UAC, complete the annual UAC training, and ensure that they do so, as required. | In 2015, we reported that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) did not know the extent to which Border Patrol agents and Office of Field Operations (OFO) officers, who have substantive contact with unaccompanied alien children (UAC), had completed required UAC training. At the time of our report, CBP officials stated that CBP's training system tracked the number of agents and officers who complete a course, but did not have data on the total number of agents and officers who should have taken the course. We recommended that CBP determine which agents and officers are required to complete the annual UAC training, and ensure that they do so, as required. In response, on July 1, 2015,...
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| United States Customs and Border Protection | To help ensure that CBP has complete and reliable data needed to ensure compliance with care requirements under the Flores Agreement and CBP policies, the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection should require that OFO officers record care provided to UAC in an automated manner. | In July 2015, we reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had policies in place to implement care requirements, such as providing meals, for unaccompanied alien children (UAC) in its custody; however, DHS did not collect complete and reliable data on care provided to UAC. In particular, we reported that U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) Office of Field Operations (OFO) had an automated database to record UAC care, but OFO officers at most ports of entry did not do so. Thus, we recommended that CBP require OFO officers to record care provided to UAC in an automated manner. In response, in October 2015, OFO issued a muster and memorandum requiring officers to record...
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| United States Customs and Border Protection | To help ensure that CBP has complete and reliable data needed to ensure compliance with care requirements under the Flores Agreement and CBP policies, the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection should ensure that Border Patrol agents record care provided to UAC in Border Patrol's automated system, as required. | In July 2015, we reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had policies in place to implement care requirements, such as providing meals, for unaccompanied alien children (UAC) in its custody; however, DHS did not collect complete and reliable data on care provided to UAC. In particular, we reported that U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) Border Patrol agents did not routinely or accurately record care actions in the agency's automated system, as required by Border Patrol policy. Thus, we recommended that Border Patrol ensure that Border Patrol agents record care provided to UAC in its automated system. In response, USBP has taken steps to modify its automated...
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| Department of Homeland Security | To help ensure that DHS has complete and reliable data needed to ensure compliance with the UAC time-in-custody requirement under TVPRA and for required reports on UAC time in custody under the Flores Agreement, the Secretary of Homeland Security should require OFO officers to record data in their automated system when UAC leave OFO custody in order to track the length of time UAC are in OFO custody. | In July 2015, we reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) could not accurately determine how long unaccompanied alien children (UAC) were in custody with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) Office of Field Operations (OFO) because OFO did not collect complete and reliable information on the dates and times during which UAC came into and left its custody. Specifically, we reported that OFO's data system automatically generated a book-in date and time when officers entered a UAC apprehension in the system, but OFO officials told us that their system did not have a field to record when UAC left OFO custody. OFO had a "time out" field in its system, but officers...
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| Department of Homeland Security | To help ensure that DHS has complete and reliable data needed to ensure compliance with the UAC time-in-custody requirement under TVPRA and for required reports on UAC time in custody under the Flores Agreement, the Secretary of Homeland Security should require ICE officers to record accurate and reliable data in their automated system when UAC leave ICE custody in order to track the length of time UAC are in ICE custody. | In July 2015, we reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not collect complete or reliable data on the length of time unaccompanied alien children (UAC) were in DHS custody. In particular, we reported that DHS's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had a user manual describing how to book in and book out subjects, including UAC, and ICE officials stated that they covered the proper use of these fields during monthly conference calls and annual training. However, ICE did not have a policy that required officers to record book-in or book-out dates and times for UAC in its custody. We also reported that ICE headquarters officials told us officers often entered...
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| Department of Homeland Security |
Priority Rec.
To increase the efficiency and improve the accuracy of the interagency UAC referral and placement process, the Secretaries of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services should jointly develop and implement a documented interagency process with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, as well as procedures to disseminate placement decisions, for all agencies involved in the referral and placement of UAC in HHS shelters. |
In response to our recommendation, DHS and HHS issued a joint concept of operations in July 2018 that provides guidance and standardization of interagency policies and procedures related to the processing of unaccompanied children encountered by DHS whose care will be transferred to HHS. DHS updated this document with a memorandum of agreement on information sharing in March 2021. HHS officials stated that, taken together, the concept of operations and memorandum are comprehensive and sufficient to address information sharing gaps and outline the interagency process with clearly defined roles and responsibilities as well as procedures to disseminate placement decisions. Further, HHS...
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| Department of Health and Human Services |
Priority Rec.
To increase the efficiency and improve the accuracy of the interagency UAC referral and placement process, the Secretaries of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services should jointly develop and implement a documented interagency process with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, as well as procedures to disseminate placement decisions, for all agencies involved in the referral and placement of UAC in HHS shelters. |
In response to our recommendation, DHS and HHS issued a joint concept of operations in July 2018 that provides guidance and standardization of interagency policies and procedures related to the processing of unaccompanied children encountered by DHS whose care will be transferred to HHS. DHS updated this document with a memorandum of agreement on information sharing in March 2021. HHS officials stated that, taken together, the concept of operations and memorandum are comprehensive and sufficient to address information sharing gaps and outline the interagency process with clearly defined roles and responsibilities as well as procedures to disseminate placement decisions. Further, HHS...
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| Department of Homeland Security | To ensure that minimum legislative requirements to protect UAC from severe forms of trafficking in persons are in repatriation agreements with Mexico and are met, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Secretary of State, should ensure that TVPRA requirements for these agreements are reflected in local repatriation arrangements as DHS renegotiates these arrangements with Mexico. | In July 2015, we reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had entered into local arrangements with Mexican consulates to ensure the safe and humane repatriation of Mexican nationals, including unaccompanied alien children (UAC). However, the arrangements did not reflect minimum Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVPRA) requirements for agreements with Mexico with respect to the repatriation of UAC. These agreements are to be designed to protect children from severe forms of trafficking in persons and must, at minimum, provide that (1) no child shall be returned unless to appropriate officials, including child welfare officials where available; (2)...
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