6 U.S.C. § 279 — Children’s affairs

(a) Transfer of functions This law moves certain immigration-law functions to the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, inside the Department of Health and Human Services. Specifically, it moves the functions dealing with caring for unaccompanied alien children that used to belong by law to, or were carried out by, the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization — or any officer, employee, or part of the old Immigration and Naturalization Service — right before the effective date named in subsection (d). (b) Functions (1) Because of that transfer, the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement is now responsible for: coordinating and carrying out the care and placement of unaccompanied alien children held by the federal government because of their immigration status — including writing a plan for Congress on how to make sure each child gets a qualified, independent lawyer quickly, following the legal-counsel rules in effect on November 25, 2002; making sure each child's own interests are considered in decisions about their care and custody; deciding where each such child in federal custody is placed; carrying out those placement decisions; carrying out policies on caring for and placing these children; finding enough qualified people, organizations, and facilities to house them; overseeing the buildings and staff of the facilities that house them; reuniting children with a parent abroad when appropriate; publishing, at least once a year, a state-by-state list of professionals and organizations qualified to act as guardians or lawyers for these children; keeping statistics and other data on these children — including their name, gender, birth date, birth country, and home country; the date each child came into federal custody; what happened to the child at each facility (placement, removal, or release), with an explanation whenever a child is detained or released; and how any legal case involving the child turned out; gathering statistics from the Justice Department, Homeland Security, and the State Department on what each of those departments has done regarding these children; and inspecting and investigating the facilities and organizations that house these children, including regular follow-up visits, to check whether each placement is still appropriate. (2) Coordination with other officials; no releases on a child's own word: When deciding where to place a child under (1)(C), the Director must consult with juvenile-justice professionals, the Director of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Border Security. Together they must make sure each child is likely to show up for hearings, is protected from smugglers, traffickers, and others who might exploit them, and is placed somewhere that isn't dangerous to the child or to others. The Director may never release a child based only on the child's own promise to appear later. (3) Foster care: The law encourages the Director to use the existing refugee children's foster care system (created under section 412(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act) to place unaccompanied alien children. (4) Rule of construction: The ban on releasing children on their own word doesn't mean a bond has to be posted before releasing a child to a qualified sponsor. (c) Rule of construction Nothing in this section takes away the authority of Justice Department, Homeland Security, or State Department officials to decide immigration benefit applications under the Immigration and Nationality Act. (d) Effective date This section takes effect on whatever date the transfer of functions under section 251 of this title takes effect — regardless of what section 4 says. (e) References Wherever any other federal law, executive order, rule, regulation, delegation of authority, or government document refers to the head of the office that used to handle these functions, that reference now means the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. A reference to that old office now means the Office of Refugee Resettlement at the Department of Health and Human Services. (f) Other transition issues (1) Exercise of authorities: Unless a law says otherwise, whoever now handles a transferred function can use all the same legal powers the previous official had to carry out that function. (2) Savings provisions: The protections in subsections (a), (b), and (c) of section 552 of this title — which normally apply when functions transfer to the Department of Homeland Security under this chapter — apply the same way to this transfer. (3) Transferring money and staff: The Justice Department employees who worked on these functions, along with the related assets, debts, contracts, property, records, and unspent appropriated funds that belonged to the old Immigration and Naturalization Service, transfer to the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, for use within the right part of Health and Human Services (subject to section 1531 of title 31). Any unspent transferred money can only be used for the purpose it was originally approved for. (g) Definitions "Placement" means putting an unaccompanied alien child either in a detention facility or in an alternative to detention. An "unaccompanied alien child" is a child who has no legal immigration status in the United States, is under 18 years old, and either has no parent or legal guardian in the United States, or has one who isn't available to take care of them.