The Trump administration's July 9 directive requires parents seeking to reunite with unaccompanied children in federal custody to appear in person for identification verification interviews, where ICE officers may be present. Legal advocacy groups report that some parents have been arrested during these interviews, leaving their children in government custody. In one case, a Venezuelan father with temporary protected status was called to an ICE office in New Mexico under the premise of discussing reunification with his two teenage children, who had been in a Texas shelter for nearly a year; officers instead pressured him to sign documents he said he didn't understand, then stripped him and restrained him before transferring him to a detention center in El Paso, where he was held for several months. The Office of Refugee Resettlement stated the policy aims to ensure sponsors are properly vetted, a change from previous practice where sponsors could submit identity documents online.