Kayla Hamilton Act

The Kayla Hamilton Act updates federal child-trafficking protections and changes how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) decides where to place children who arrive in the U.S. without a parent or legal guardian and without lawful status. These children are called “unaccompanied alien children” under federal law. HHS would have to weigh a child’s risk to themselves, risk to the community, and risk of running away when choosing the least restrictive placement. It amends existing anti-trafficking law to strengthen these placement rules.

Before placing most children, HHS would have to ask the child’s home-country consulate or embassy for any criminal record and check for gang-related tattoos or markings. If a child is 13 or older and has gang-related markings or a record tied to gang activity, the child must be placed in a secure facility.

Key points

• Who is affected: Unaccompanied children in HHS custody and people who want to sponsor them, including all adult members of a sponsor’s household.
• What changes for placements: HHS must consider danger to self, danger to the community, and flight risk; for most children, HHS must request any criminal record from the child’s home country and check for gang markings; children 13+ with gang indicators must go to a secure facility .
• What changes for sponsors: HHS must give the Department of Homeland Security the sponsor’s and all adult household members’ name, date of birth, Social Security number, immigration status, contact details, and results of background checks (including sex-offender registry, public records, and an FBI fingerprint check) before placement.
• A key limit: HHS may not place a child with a sponsor who is unlawfully present in the United States.