Organizational Sign-On Letter: ICE, HSI Interviews of Unaccompanied Children in U.S. Custody

September 24, 2025

HSI Interviews of Unaccompanied Children in U.S. Custody Run Counter to U.S. Law

On September 24, 2025, more than 20 immigrant and child advocacy organizations, including Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), raised urgent concerns about Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) interviews of unaccompanied children in Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) shelters. The groups warn that these interviews, framed by ICE as “family reunification” efforts, are traumatizing children, undermining trust in child welfare professionals, and blurring the critical separation between ORR’s child protection mission and DHS’s immigration enforcement role. Advocates report that the interviews have been aggressive, lacked confidentiality, interpretation, and trauma-informed safeguards, and in some cases proceeded without legal services providers present. The coalition urges ICE, HSI, and ORR to halt the practice and pursue child-centered, legally sound alternatives that protect unaccompanied children fleeing abuse, trafficking, and persecution.

Download Sign-On Letter

Signers: Acacia Center for Justice, The Advocates for Human Rights, Al Otro Lado, Ayuda, Church World Service, The Door – A Center of Alternatives, Inc., Estrella del Paso, Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project (GHIRP), HIAS Pennsylvania, Immigration Center for Women and Children, Immigration Defenders Law Center (ImmDef), Jewish Family and Community Services of Pittsburgh, Justice in Motion, Kids in Need of Defense, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, Latino Memphis, Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, Mid-South Immigration Advocates, Orlando Center for Justice, Public Counsel, Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN), Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights