More than 12,000 people were arrested by the US immigration authorities following information provided by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), the federal agency responsible for receiving unaccompanied migrant children. According to a survey published on Tuesday 28 July 2026 by Reuters, the organization has shared over 460,000 reports with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since January 2025, a cooperation that now brings the care of minors closer to migration operations.
Among the persons arrested are parents who came to find their children after their visit to reception centres. The case of Aurora, a 24-year-old mother, illustrates this new reality: after more than six months of separation with her six-year-old daughter who arrived alone at the border, she was arrested only a few days after their reunification and placed with the child in a family detention centre in Texas.
The ORR states that these enhanced verifications meet an objective of protecting minors from abuse and potential dangers. However, migrants' rights defenders denounce a shift in approach, considering that information gathered in the context of child support is now being used to strengthen immigration procedures. This situation revives the debate in the United States on the border between child protection and migration control.
