Migrant Children: Regulations, Rights, and Benefits

In the last ten years, the United States has experienced a major increase in migrant children or unaccompanied foreign minors. Most of these children come from Mexico and Central America, including El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. Hundreds of families and minors alone make their way to the southern U.S. border to escape the violence in their home countries.

By the time a family makes it to the border, it may seem like a relief. However, there is a lot at stake to avoid getting sent back home. For information about your immigration situation, talk to an experienced immigration lawyer.

Immigration for Migrant Children

Being a child or young parent without economic resources in many Central American countries is not easy. With threats of gang violence, underage children flee their home countries with or without adult supervision to the United States. Young migrants also run the risk of being victims of other crimes, including physical or sexual abuse or human trafficking.

Definition and Treatment of an Unaccompanied Foreign Minor

Under U.S. immigration law, when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) detains unaccompanied foreign minors crossing the border into the United States, they are turned over to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).

This program is part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS is the federal agency of the U.S. government that immediately assumes custody and care of migrant children. Federal law requires the ORR to feed, shelter, and provide medical care for immigrant youth in their care.

An Unaccompanied Alien Child (UAC) is a child who:

• Does not have legal status in the United States
• Is under 18 years old
• Does not have a parent or legal guardian in the United States
• Does not have a parent or legal guardian available to provide physical custody and care

As of September 16, 2019, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had detained and transferred more than 67,000 UACs to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which was a record high for the U.S.

As of March 7, 2025, there were 2,218 children in HHS care. The ORR has several reception centers where migrant children reside while officials determine their permanent destination. ORR provides for the children until they release the children to sponsors awaiting immigration court proceedings.

The situation of these unaccompanied foreign minors is complex. They leave their countries, fleeing violence, and arrive in a foreign place, facing detention and separation from their parents. Some are children so young that they simply do not understand the situation, worsening their child welfare, trauma, and mental health.

The Flores Agreement of 1997: How to Proceed With Migrant Minors

The Flores Agreement determines the legal rules and procedures for dealing with unaccompanied children (minors) who cross the border into the United States, with or without their parents, and who are in federal government custody.

Flores refers to the legal case of Jenny Lissette Flores, a 15-year-old girl from El Salvador, who crossed the border into the United States to meet with her aunt. Jenny was detained, physically examined, and sent to a juvenile detention center.

The immigration office was unable to grant custody to her aunt because they were not authorized to hand a child over to a third party. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of Jenny and other minors. The Flores settlement in 1997 was a result of this initiative.

This arrangement requires government offices, which have federal custody of migrant children, to do the following:

• Provide physical care, food, clothing, health care, medicines, child care, education, help to identify immediate relatives in the United States, communication service according to the child’s language, English language instruction, recreation, entertainment, coordination of visits and contact with their family members, and support for family reunification.
• Shelter migrant children in a facility with necessary facilities, including a clean and safe space, with beds and adequate temperature.
• Have access to legal help.
• Quickly deliver minors to their parents, immediate relatives, or legal institution for foster care in the United States.

Family Separation: Finding Legal Help

In April 2018, the Trump administration made official the policy of “zero tolerance” for undocumented immigrants who crossed the border into the United States. Under these immigration policies, if someone crossed the border illegally, they could face arrest by the border patrol and criminal charges, not just a civil offense, as was the case before.

This practice brought about the separation of many families because the arrested parents were sent to adult detention centers for criminal prosecution. Their children went to ORR centers as unaccompanied minors.

As a result, thousands of families were separated, and the number of migrant children arriving at ORR centers increased to historic levels.

Establishing the exact number of separated families has been a complicated task, but an estimated 2,400 families have been separated since the implementation of the “zero tolerance” policy.

Human rights and migrant children’s activists, immigration attorneys, members of Congress, and the press began denouncing irregularities regarding these minor immigrant children. In June 2018, after much political and social pressure, the Trump administration canceled the program. A district court judge ordered the families to be reunited within a period of no more than six months.

Even though the program officially ended in 2018, family separation is still happening.

Migrant Children and the Right to Legal Representation

Under the law, minors in the care of ORR centers have the right to seek legal representation, though they are not guaranteed government-appointed legal counsel in immigration proceedings. Many of these children even have eligibility for immigration relief from the U.S. government to help them stay in the country, through:

• Asylum
• Visas for children who have been victims of abuse, neglect, or abandonment by their parents or legal guardians
• Visas for victims of trafficking or certain types of crime (under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act)
• Adjustment of legal immigration status if they have a relative in the country who is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident (green card holder) and serves as their sponsor

Most detained migrant children and their immigrant families are unaware of these benefits. Many go to immigration proceedings without representation. Without legal services, a high percentage of migrant minors go through removal proceedings and deportation to their home country. They may lose their opportunity to remain legally in the United States.

The ORR recognizes that a migrant minor has the right to legal representation. If minors cannot pay for a lawyer, they must seek private pro bono representation, as in March 2025, the administration terminated the federal legal services programs that previously funded ORR-provided legal service providers (LSPs). 

Advocacy can provide assistance in the immigration system. Help includes safeguards against deportation, interpreters, representation before the immigration judge in immigration court, and immigration review.

Unaccompanied Migrant Children Updates and Legal Advice

In 2025, the legal situation for many migrant children is still up in the air. Many of these children have been in the country long enough that they will soon turn 18. As adults, they lose many of the legal protections of unaccompanied minors.

On August 31st, 2025, reports emerged of plans to put children on planes in Texas to fly them to Guatemala in the dead of night. Immigrant child advocates got an emergency court order to block the flight. A number of the children still had pending immigration cases.

U.S. immigration laws can change at any time. For the most recent developments in immigration laws for migrant children and their families, talk to an immigration attorney.