DeLauro Condemns ORR Consideration of Policies Slowing Safe Placement of Unaccompanied Children

NEW HAVEN, CT—(April 16, 2020) Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), Chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee that funds the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), today released the following statement upon reports that the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is considering limiting sponsors for unaccompanied children and resuming fingerprinting for all members of potential sponsors' households.

"Even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic—which has killed tens of thousands of Americans and demands the undivided attention of our federal government—the Trump administration remains focused on inflicting trauma on unaccompanied children. The Office of Refugee Resettlement's mission is to care for children and place them with sponsors safely and expeditiously. Instead, Stephen Miller and other anti-immigrant zealots in the Trump administration are operating under the shadow of COVID-19 to keep kids from being placed with sponsors. We have seen the consequences of limiting the number of sponsors and reducing their willingness to come forward: kids endure irreparable harm as safe placements grind to a halt. That is government-sanctioned child abuse. It is cruel, and our policies cannot go back."

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