Federal law enforcement agents are interviewing unaccompanied migrant children who are in government custody, according to a notice sent to shelter providers from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

       The notice is an update to an email from July, which said that Department of Homeland Security officials are visiting shelters to issue "Notices to Appear, locate children who are deemed missing, and conduct criminal investigations."

       According to the email dated Aug. 4, the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a sub-agency of HHS, notified shelters that federal law enforcement officers were starting interviews that day.

       The notice, which was obtained by ABC News, instructs shelters to "please cooperate with requests for access to unaccompanied alien children."

       The July notice said that "ORR instructs residential care providers to cooperate when DHS officials who present government issued photo identification request information and records pertaining to [unaccompanied minors]."

       Earlier this year, Immigration and Customs and Enforcement directed agents to track down unaccompanied migrant children in the United States. The move is part of an initiative officials say is meant to ensure migrant children are not victims of human trafficking or victims of other forms of exploitation.

       "In March 2025, [HHS] identified a backlog of more than 65,000 reports regarding children who came across the border unaccompanied that were ignored during the Biden administration," said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a statement.

       "Since discovering this, HHS stood up a triage center and modernized outdated software systems to triage and action all reports," McLaughlin said. "As of July 24, 2025, more than 59,000 of the backlogged reports have been analyzed and processed, resulting in more than 4,000 investigative leads, including fraud, human trafficking, and other criminal activity."

       The notification from HHS has sparked concern among some immigrant advocates.

       Michael Lukens, the executive director for the Amica Center which represents migrant children, told ABC News that "DHS' plan to interrogate children who are in government shelters will do nothing but further traumatize children and keep them from being reunited with their families."

       "It has long been a hallmark of the American immigration system, as broken as it is, to do our best to protect children," said Lukens. "This is cruel and international targeting of immigrant children, plain and simple."