Migrant Child Safety Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill amends placement rules for unaccompanied alien children. Before placing a child with a sponsor, HHS must give DHS sponsor information including names, Social Security number, birth data, proof of address, background-check results for the sponsor and adult household members, immigration status, contact data, and proof of family or guardian relationship or DNA results. HHS must conduct an in-person home visit, require a noncitizen sponsor to consent to electronic monitoring during the child's immigration proceedings unless otherwise determined, and require a bond of at least $5,000 conditioned on the child's appearance at proceedings and reporting compliance. DHS must determine the sponsor's immigration status and may consider removal proceedings. HHS may not waive information collection, must report unreachable children to NCMEC after 120 days, provide information to state or local welfare agencies within 30 days, and try to contact parents.
Who Benefits and How
Unaccompanied alien children, state child welfare agencies, local child welfare agencies, DHS screening officials, and NCMEC benefit from more identity, household, safety, and follow-up information before and after placement.
Who Bears the Burden and How
HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement must collect and transmit more sponsor data, conduct home visits, verify relationships, report unreachable children, notify welfare agencies, and attempt parental contact. Sponsors of migrant children face deeper vetting; noncitizen sponsors may face electronic monitoring and a bond of at least $5,000. DHS must run immigration-status checks and coordinate enforcement decisions.
Key Provisions
- Requires HHS to provide DHS detailed sponsor identity, household, background-check, immigration-status, contact, and relationship-verification information before placement.
- Requires at least one in-person home visit before placement and bars HHS from waiving the sponsor-information requirements.
- Requires noncitizen sponsors to consent to electronic monitoring and execute a bond of at least $5,000 unless otherwise determined.
- Directs HHS to report unreachable children to NCMEC, notify state or local welfare agencies, and try to contact parents.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Tightens sponsor-screening and post-placement duties for unaccompanied alien children by requiring HHS to share sponsor data with DHS, conduct home visits, impose monitoring and bond conditions for some sponsors, and report missing children.
Key Policy Areas
Immigration, Child Welfare, Public Safety
Primary Purpose
Tightens sponsor-screening and post-placement duties for unaccompanied alien children by requiring HHS to share sponsor data with DHS, conduct home visits, impose monitoring and bond conditions for some sponsors, and report missing children.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Unaccompanied alien children
- State child welfare agencies
- Local child welfare agencies
- NCMEC
Identified Costs
- HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement
- Department of Homeland Security
- Sponsors of migrant children
- Noncitizen sponsors
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Introduced in House
Mr. Grothman (for himself, Mr. Gooden, Mrs. Miller of Illinois, …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Noncitizen sponsors, Sponsors of migrant children, Unaccompanied alien children
Positive-direction: Unaccompanied alien children
Negative-direction: Noncitizen sponsors, Sponsors of migrant children
Department of Homeland Security, HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "dhs"
- → Secretary of Homeland Security
- "hhs"
- → Secretary of Health and Human Services
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology