After months in a Houston-area shelter, a 9-year-old girl from El Salvador pleaded to be reunited with her mother. Instead, immigration officers detained her mother during the process of seeking custody. In September, the two returned to El Salvador, ending the child's 281-day stay in the United States despite the mother's fears about their safety there.
The girl, identified as M.R., was among nearly 1,900 children in shelters overseen by the Office of Refugee Resettlement as of September. Interviews with families, lawyers and advocates, along with court records reviewed by KFF Health News, describe a system increasingly serving the second Trump administration's immigration enforcement goals. Attorneys said detained caregivers, more demanding sponsorship requirements and families' fears of coming forward have left children waiting months for release.
Before President Trump's second term, children generally spent about a month in the office's custody while prospective sponsors were screened. Average stays have since approached six months. Jonathan White, who previously led the office's unaccompanied children program during part of Trump's first term, said the administration was turning a child welfare system into a detention program that pressures immigrants to leave. Federal requirements call for placement in the least restrictive setting and release without unnecessary delay.
M.R. arrived with her older sister late last year, hoping to join their mother, Carmen, and brother in Tennessee. Carmen said gang members had killed the girl's father, uncle and a pregnant cousin. M.R. also told a social worker that her maternal grandmother had hit her and her sister while caring for them. Her sister left the shelter after turning 18, three weeks after their arrival, leaving M.R. without close family.
In April, Carmen attended a DNA testing appointment she understood to be the final requirement for her daughter's release. She had already provided financial records and fingerprints and received a social worker's home visit. Immigration officers detained her at the appointment without a warrant, despite her pending asylum case and lack of a criminal record. The resettlement office then denied her sponsorship application because she was detained.
Shelter counseling records described M.R. crying about the separation, although she received no diagnosis. Carmen said her daughter reported loneliness, nosebleeds and feeling unwell. Sural Shah, a physician who visited migrant shelters with an American Academy of Pediatrics team, said prolonged stays were contributing to anxiety, depression and stress disorders among children. Attorneys also reported that some distressed children had attempted suicide.
The Department of Homeland Security characterized arrests of sponsors as efforts to protect children. A federal watchdog found shortcomings in sponsor screening during the Biden administration, and reporting has documented exploitation after some children's release. DHS supplied 16 cases involving sponsors arrested in connection with serious crimes. It declined to address Carmen's case without identifying details. HHS did not respond to questions.
After receiving a deportation order, Carmen faced leaving M.R. in long-term foster care or returning together to El Salvador. She said people responsible for killing relatives and threatening her remained active in her former neighborhood. In July, overwhelmed by her daughter's distress, she requested that they leave together rather than continue fighting the order.
Mother and daughter were sent to El Salvador in mid-September, three weeks before M.R.'s 10th birthday. Her older siblings remain in the United States pursuing asylum. Her brother left high school in Tennessee, and he and his twin sister moved in with a relative.
