The author describes the changes that the Homeland Security Act of 2002 brought about regarding transferring basic care, custody and placement functions of unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to the Office of Refugee Settlement (ORS.) He asserts the need to pass the Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act of 2003 in order to address problems inherent in the provisions of the Homeland Security Act of 2002. He argues that the 2003 bill would also further improve the fair and humane treatment of unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children in the areas of age determinations, placement in state dependency proceedings, fast legal representation, eligibility for guardian ad litem services and training of legal officials dealing with cases.
