(VIRGINIA) — Two Honduran immigrant children have been unlawfully detained at a youth facility in Virginia for more than 300 days, the American Civil Liberties Union alleged in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday.
According to the complaint, the two siblings — a 16-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl who lawyers say both fled gang violence in Honduras — have remained in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) despite “the existence of a fully vetted and approved sponsor.”
The lawsuit alleges that the government agency, which operates under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has “repeatedly delayed reunification through shifting technical and immaterial objections to sponsorship paperwork.”
According to the complaint, a close family friend stepped forward to sponsor them upon their arrival in U.S. in July 2025. By October 2025, federal officials had allegedly completed a positive home study and background checks, and recorded that “no documents are pending” in the case.
But instead of releasing the children, government officials “repeatedly” reopened the sponsorship process over minor clerical details, the lawsuit alleges.
The minors are being detained at Youth For Tomorrow, a Christian-based organization that provided services to unaccompanied migrant children. The ACLU said in the complaint that the delays in processing sponsor paperwork “are part of an escalating pattern” by the Office of Refugee Resettlement “to prevent children from being released.”
The two siblings, according to the lawsuit, have “documented educational accommodation plans and require specialized educational and developmental services” that they are not receiving while in custody.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told ABC News that the Office of Refugee Resettlement does not comment on active litigation. Youth For Tomorrow did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
The lawsuit comes as the average stay for unaccompanied minors in ORR custody has grown from 30 days in 2024 to 117 days in 2025 under the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown.
“ORR is choosing chaos and confusion for the children in its care over safety and stability,” Sophia Gregg, an attorney with the ACLU of Virginia, said in a statement. “ORR is tasked with facilitating the safe and speedy release of unaccompanied children in its care, but instead of following the law, it’s choosing to advance the Trump administration’s cruel, anti-immigrant agenda and causing irreparable harm to children in the process.”
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
