HHS issued interim final rule permitting ICE and CBP to access sponsors' immigration status, reinstating first-term enforcement arrangement

On March 25, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published an interim final rule in the Federal Register (90 Fed. Reg. 13554, document 2025-04971) rescinding a key provision of the Biden administration's 2024 Unaccompanied Children Program Foundational Rule. The rescinded provision had prohibited ORR from collecting or sharing sponsors' immigration status information with ICE or CBP for law enforcement or immigration enforcement purposes, and had barred disqualifying sponsors based solely on their immigration status. The IFR took effect immediately upon publication, bypassing the standard notice-and-comment process, with a public comment period open until May 27, 2025.

The IFR reinstated the terms of a memorandum of agreement between ORR, ICE, and CBP that had been in place during Trump's first term. Under that arrangement, ORR's coordination with immigration enforcement agencies resulted in the arrest of approximately 170 undocumented sponsors who came forward to claim children in federal custody. The Biden administration had explicitly prohibited this data-sharing in its 2024 Foundational Rule, responding to what immigration advocates described as a "sponsor trap": the most consequential step in family reunification — a sponsor identifying themselves to the government — had become a vector for immigration enforcement. By reinstating the data-sharing agreement, the IFR recreated that dynamic, exposing any undocumented individual who presents themselves to claim a child in ORR custody to ICE or CBP enforcement action.

A class action lawsuit, Angelica S. v. HHS (No. 25-cv-1405, D.D.C.), was filed in May 2025 on behalf of five children in ORR custody and the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, challenging the IFR as exceeding ORR's statutory authority and as arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act. In June 2025, a district court granted class certification and a preliminary injunction on related new sponsor documentation requirements — finding HHS had failed to explain the policy reversal — while denying the injunction on the IFR itself. Current and former ORR staff told ProPublica that the agency's mission appeared to be shifting from child welfare toward immigration enforcement.