FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 17, 2026
CONTACT: press@acaciajustice.org
WASHINGTON – In response to a report from the Associated Press that the Trump administration has ordered caregivers for migrant children to stop reporting human trafficking concerns directly to the Office of Trafficking in Persons (OTIP). Shaina Aber, Executive Director of the Acacia Center for Justice, issued the following statement:
“It seems like every day this administration comes up with a new way to harm and endanger immigrant children. Weeks ago, the government allowed funding for unaccompanied children’s lawyers to expire, and now they are going after anti-trafficking protections required by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, and the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s own regulation and policy. The Office of Trafficking in Persons is charged with identifying child-trafficking survivors and granting them eligibility for important benefits, including social service support.
The government appears, per public statement, to be changing a long-standing process, requiring caregivers to report trafficking concerns directly to the Office of Refugee Resettlement and removing OTIP from the process. As a result, children will be less likely to be found for protections and benefits they need and are entitled to receive. Such a move will undoubtedly endanger the lives and safety of children.
Many unaccompanied children are indeed survivors of trafficking. Ongoing risks to those children are further compounded when the Office of Trafficking in Persons is sidelined.
Let’s be clear: this is the latest salvo in the administration’s ongoing campaign to target some of the most vulnerable children in our society to deprive children with protection needs of their legal rights to enact a mass deportation agenda. If the administration cares about protecting children from trafficking, they must rescind this policy immediately and cease their attacks on unaccompanied children.”
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