Since enactment of the Refugee Act of 1980, the Immigration and Nationality Act has contained a designation for a group of children termed as "unaccompanied refugee minors" (URMs): refugee children in the United States under the age of 18, without a parent or close relative willing or able to care for them. The State Department identifies refugee children overseas who are eligible for resettlement in the United States but who do not have a parent or guardian. These children comprise an especially vulnerable population because they are both fleeing persecution and entering the United States without a parent or custodian. Consequently, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is tasked with caring for these children until they are either reunited with their families or reach the age of 18. Once in ORR's custody, a URM will be placed in the agency's URM program, wherein ORR works with state and local service providers, as well as volunteer agencies, to provide the URM with foster placement, services, and any needed care. Since 1980, approximately 12,000 URMs have been handled by ORR. The divide over URM policy in the United States generally falls between two groups: advocates of increased URM inflows and supporters of current levels. Groups that support greater URM inflows note the rising levels of refugees worldwide, along with media accounts of numerous URMs in regions such as Darfur. Proponents of refugee inflows under the current URM policy point out that the United States already has one of the highest refugee admission levels of any advanced industrialized country. The central policy question for Congress in the URM debate revolves around the number of URMs being identified abroad and brought to the United States. This report covers the background of URM policy in the United States and provides a description of current agencies involved and resources available in the care of URMs. Analysis of URM trends and statistics, along with discussions concerning potential future sources of URMs, is also included. Finally, recent legislation concerning URM is listed and summarized. This report will be updated as developments warrant. The emergence of unaccompanied refugee minors as an issue has followed a pattern in the United States that dates back to at least World War II. This pattern has historically emerged from two overlapping factors: (1) the generation of large refugee flows from a conflict or oppressive regime and (2) significant U.S. involvement, either militarily or diplomatically, with the conflict or regime. Generally, these factors have contributed to both the creation of a notable supply of unaccompanied refugee children eligible to relocate to the United States, as well as a growth in public pressure on the federal government to provide assistance to these children. Beginning with the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the United States developed policies to deal with unaccompanied refugee minors on a largely ad hoc basis. Early URM policies came with the Attorney General's July 13, 1940 Order, and the President's Directive Program of 1945, both of which evacuated children from the war zone and displaced persons camps in heavily affected parts of Europe. The American general public felt sympathy for the refugee children, but a number of opponents of resettlement questioned the ability of such children to assimilate into U.S. culture, noted security concerns such children might present, and criticized the effect the children would have on immigration quotas. The first two decades of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union provided the diplomatic tensions and political circumstances for a second wave of unaccompanied refugee children from Soviet-allied countries to become eligible for resettlement in the United States. For example, the Refugee Relief Act of 1953 and the Hungarian Refugee Program of 1956 allowed for a number of European children from Eastern bloc countries to enter outside of any existing immigration quotas, thereby defusing much of the potential criticism of previous refugee efforts. In addition, the early 1960s saw one of the largest inflows of unaccompanied refugee children coming from communist-controlled Cuba, with more than 14,000 such minors entering the country between 1960 and 1962. U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam conflict resulted in additional ad hoc efforts at resolving the circumstances of increased numbers of unaccompanied child refugees. Public attention was drawn particularly in 1975 to Operation Babylift, which was a series of 26 flights out of Vietnam to bring more than 2,500 orphans to the United States. The first of these flights crashed, killing 78 orphans and thereby marring the program's reputation. Furthermore, the build-up of large populations of Indochinese refugees and displaced persons in Southeast Asia resulted in the Indochinese Refugee Children Assistance Program, as well as programmatic clarification efforts in 1979. Although the number of URMs were fewer than had been brought into the United States through Operation Babylift, the Indochinese Refugee Program was significant for future policy development because it highlighted key jurisdictional and operational difficulties in handling URMs. Crucially, although Operation Babylift resulted in federal program coordination between the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of State (DOS), and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the federal coordination during the 1979 efforts occurred between the DOS and HHS's ORR. The overlapping jurisdiction and lack of clear procedural precedent was one of several problems that plagued the ad hoc URM policy approach between World War II and the end of the Vietnam conflict. A recurring difficulty through this entire period was securing the involvement of state and local agencies, because of reimbursement concerns (which were normally alleviated with written guarantees from federal officials for 100% reimbursement from the federal government). In addition, problems and concerns arose regarding the coordination of efforts between the public and private sectors and the detention of juveniles in adult facilities, as well as the age determination of potential juveniles in the refugee population. Consequently, in 1979 and 1980, Congress held a series of hearings to inform Members on the difficulties that had arisen in dealing with refugees and URMs. With Members informed by experts from both the public and private sectors, Congress worked on passing refugee legislation, with the result being the Refugee Act of 1980. This act (which is still reflected in the statutory amendment to the INA on refugees) had two basic purposes: (1) to provide a uniform procedure for refugee admissions and (2) to authorize federal assistance to resettle refugees and promote their self-sufficiency. In terms of URMs, the 1980 act included special provisions intended to address the problems that had been raised at the hearings, including establishing federal reimbursement to URM welfare providers until minors reached age 18; providing that placement of URMs should happen before or shortly after their arrival in the United States and under the state law in the placement location; when to grant ORR legal custody of URMs (whether it should be while in transit to or subsequent to arrival in the United States); giving ORR the authority to enter into contracts with appropriate public and private agencies; mandating that ORR track and maintain relevant information on all URMs in the United States after 1975. Since the 1980 act, fewer URM policy and operational concerns have been voiced by observers, and ORR has absorbed other unaccompanied children into the URM program, including Cuban/Haitian entrants and unaccompanied alien children. Under regulation, an unaccompanied refugee minor (URM) is a child who is under the age of 18, and "who entered the United States unaccompanied by and not destined to (a) a parent or (b) a close nonparental adult relative who is willing and able to care for the child or (c) an adult with a clear and court verifiable claim to custody of the minor; and who has no parent(s) in the United States." Moreover, to be placed in the URM program, children must be considered refugees, victims of trafficking, Cuban/Haitian entrants, or have been granted asylum. Although URMs are more commonly identified abroad by the Department of State for U.S. resettlement, some children categorized as URMs are already present in the United States when deemed eligible by authorities. In addition to handling URMs, ORR is tasked with caring for "unaccompanied alien children" (UAC). UACs are those children who are detained by immigration authorities in the United States for unauthorized presence in the United States and who are deemed to be unaccompanied. The main distinction between URMs and UACs is that URMs are considered legally present in the United States under the INA. Moreover, UACs are statutorily defined under the Homeland Security Act of 2002, whereas regulations dictate the definition of URM. The URM program and the UAC program are technically two distinct program administered by ORR. In practice, however, they operate in a joint fashion, as the congressional intent was to model the UAC program on its URM predecessor. Occasionally, refugee children in the URM program will initially arrive in the United States accompanied by a parent or guardian. However, family circumstances may undergo drastic changes, resulting in requests for ORR to reclassify a child as "unaccompanied" and place him or her in the URM program. According to agency guidelines, ORR will reclassify a minor to unaccompanied status if a certain set of conditions are met. However, reclassification is considered on a case-by-case basis, and the ORR Director has discretion as to whether certain criteria may be waived to accommodate given circumstances. Although Cubans and Haitians can be admitted as refugees from abroad, individuals fleeing persecution in Cuba and Haiti are legally termed as "entrants" rather than "refugees." The creation of the new entrant category was promoted by political and social considerations stemming from the large number of Cuban and Haitian nationals arriving by sea who attempted to claim asylum upon arrival in the United States.