End Cruel Immigration Enforcement Against Kids

Floor Speech

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Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. I thank Congresswoman Dexter for being such a strong and bold voice for justice and fairness in this House. She is such a great, welcome addition to the Caucus and to the House, and we appreciate her work.

We are convening this effort because of the urgent discussion that is necessary to bring very strong, laser-sharp focus to this issue.

The Trump administration has repeatedly shown that it is willing to use any method in its brutal and inhumane immigration agenda. That includes detaining kids like 5-year-old Liam Ramos on his way home from school in January in Minnesota or ending longstanding guidance that banned immigration enforcement activities at sensitive locations like our hospitals, courthouses, or schools. It includes putting a former ICE official in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement, or ORR, the agency responsible for unaccompanied children.

It is no surprise, then, that this administration is treating unaccompanied children like criminals. Often, these children arriving in the United States without a parent or guardian are fleeing persecution, violence, and trafficking.

Congress expressly authorized the ORR to care for unaccompanied children with a separate charge from immigration enforcement. However, tragically, over the past year, the ORR and ICE have become one and the same, and it is traumatizing our children.

Unaccompanied children are now being held by ORR for an average of over 200 days. Let me repeat that. Kids who are alone who have fled all that they have ever known are being held by our government for over half a year of their life. They thought they were coming to America for a better life.

In many instances, these facilities are failing to provide basic care to these children. Yet, they continue to hold these kids even when they have a family member who is ready to care for them outside of ORR custody.

Take Diego. His father was approved to care for him after he arrived unaccompanied in 2024, but he was re-detained in November of 2025 and held for 4 months because of a new DNA requirement by ORR.

To make matters worse, ORR is now sharing data and information on potential sponsors with ICE, so many parents and family members who want to care for these children are frightened to provide any information that could lead to their arrest or their detention. On several occasions, ICE has used these kids as a lure, a lure to detain family members.

Carlos, a father with temporary protected status, was detained during a December 2025 appointment with ICE in New Mexico that he thought was a regular step in his effort to reunify with his 14- and 16-year-old children who had been held in ORR custody for almost a year.

While Carlos was released on a judge's order, his children are still in ORR custody. His son is now 15 and regularly has panic attacks. His daughter is afraid that she will wait for her father forever. That is despicable. These draconian tactics are creating lasting trauma for these kids and their families, and we are already seeing the effects.

No child should have to worry about whether they will be used as bait by the government. No child should sit in detention for months on end. No child should face additional trauma here in our United States.

This issue is deeply personal for me. As a once-New York State legislator, one of my proudest accomplishments was passing Timothy's Law, which enacted mental health care parity across the State of New York. The law was named after a young constituent of mine, Timothy O'Clair, who, after suffering with mental illness and not receiving the care that he needed, took his own life at 12 years of age.

We must take the mental health of children seriously. They are not pawns. They are not bait. They are not criminals. They are children who deserve care. Stop traumatizing children. Stop the cruel immigration enforcement against our kids.

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Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to cohost this Special Order with Congresswoman Dexter. Again, I thank the gentlewoman for her caring voice.

Obviously, listening to these horrific stories that are impacting our children in this Nation is very difficult to absorb.

The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement has increased its coordination with ICE. That partnership is very troublesome. It bothers me to think of what can happen. ORR is sharing data on prospective guardians for unaccompanied children with ICE, and then ICE is increasingly using these children as lures to detain family members.

Our children should not be used as pawns. This, as a civilized nation, has an image cast to the entire world. A civilized nation nurtures its children. A civilized nation respects its children. A civilized nation loves its children. Where is our moral compass here?

Beyond the impact on these children and families, beyond the hurt and the physical and mental damage, there is an image cast to the entire world. This uncivilized behavior is a scar on our history. It is one that indicates that unaccompanied children are now waiting an average of more than 200 days in ORR detention, despite the many, many family members who are ready and able to care for them.

That is more than double the highest average seen during the first Trump administration of some 93 days and, yes, more than six times as long as the 30-day average seen under the Biden administration.

The Office of Inspector General found that the longer that children remain in ORR custody, the more likely they are to exhibit mental health or behavioral issues.

Think about that. We are inflicting damage on children, innocent children escaping harm in their native land, perhaps, or asking just to live their version of the American Dream. Longer stays in ORR detention are leading to more instances of self-harm and suicidal ideation.

We can, and we must, do better.

Mr. Speaker, it is so important that these stories are shared this afternoon with the American public because they challenge us. They inspire us to respond, to reach out to our Representatives, and to speak to this government about the way that it is conducting itself in regard to children. They are not pawns. They should not be impacted so severely and have lifetime damage.

We are a better people than that. We are a better nation than that. We are proud as a country and should maintain that sense of pride by doing right, by doing just, and by doing fair by all children, our children.

With that, I see we have been joined by another colleague.

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Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, again, I appreciate the opportunity for all of us to share our thoughts here this afternoon.

I am reminded that ICE has been re-detaining children who were previously approved to stay with family members. It seems as though cruel has to be the additive to all of these actions. It is not enough to take that first step and then re-detain and then sponsors are being asked to provide additional information, including fingerprints and DNA.

So there is an all-out attempt to dismantle the peace and tranquility of so many families and to make, again, children, pawns in this process.

Discharges to sponsors have declined dramatically. Over 5,000 unaccompanied children were released to an individual sponsor back in January of 2025. What does that number look like now? In April, that number dropped to just 45. So, again, the cruelty continues.

We see on the news every day the plummeting of the Trump administration's popularity, and that is pretty much earned. America disrespects the kind of behavior that is the hallmark of this administration--creating trauma amongst children and parents. They must end cruel immigration enforcement against kids now.

I know that we have been joined by our colleague from Texas now to hear his story.

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