WASHINGTON — When immigration agents recently began conducting welfare checks on youths who had arrived at the border unaccompanied by their parents, advocates grew alarmed, fearing the tactic was a cover to target the minors, their adult sponsors and possibly others for deportations.

Stories of these unannounced visits popped up around the country — agents who attempted to gain access to two elementary schools in Los Angeles; agents who showed up “five deep and armed” at the home of an immigration lawyer’s 19-year-old client in Virginia; agents who interviewed a terrified 16-year-old Honduran girl at her uncle’s house in Washington state.

Department of Homeland Security officials have said the welfare checks are part of an ongoing effort to ensure that unaccompanied children “are safe and not being exploited, abused, and sex trafficked.”

Immigrant advocates say some visits have led to children being forced to leave the country with their deported parents or being removed from their sponsors and placed in federal custody.

Advocates point to the case of a 17-year-old Honduran in Hawaii whose older brother had been detained by federal agents. The boy was transported to a facility for unaccompanied youths in California.

“This is just par for the course for an administration that has staked their claim on making life so incredibly difficult for immigrants at large that they think people will leave and not come to the U.S.,” said Jen Smyers, former chief of staff under the Biden administration for the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is responsible for the care of unaccompanied children.

Fear of the welfare checks “drives people underground, increases exploitation and trafficking,” Smyers said. “And they’re doing it with this perverse narrative by saying that they care about kids. But all they’re doing is wrecking these kids’ lives.”

Those under review by the Trump administration are among the roughly 450,000 children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without their parents and were released to sponsors during President Biden’s term.

Children who arrive unaccompanied by a parent are placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is under the Department of Health and Human Services. The department is required to screen adult sponsors who volunteer to care for the children, usually their parents or other relatives.

Shortly after President Trump took office, his administration formulated a multi-agency plan to track down unaccompanied children, investigate whether they are being subjected to human trafficking and deport those who are removable. An internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo, obtained by The Times, details the four-phase operation.

The memo indicates that agents should prioritize youths who didn’t show up for an immigration hearing, those whom the government has not been able to contact since they were released to sponsors, those who are considered a threat to public safety and those with deportation orders.

The agency is also looking closely at youths released from federal custody to sponsors who are not blood relatives, including so-called super sponsors who have taken in more than three unaccompanied children.

The sponsorship program has been beset by problems in recent years. The federal government has failed to properly vet some sponsors, according to a federal watchdog report from last year. Thousands of children rapidly released from government shelters were later exploited by major companies.

Last month, a federal grand jury indicted a man on allegations that he lured a 14-year-old girl from Guatemala to the U.S. and falsely claimed she was his sister to gain custody as her sponsor.

About 100 children have been removed from their sponsors this year and returned to federal custody, the Associated Press reported, and 450 cases with complaints have been referred to federal law enforcement.

The review of sponsorships under the Trump administration is being led by two branches of ICE: Enforcement and Removal Operations, or ERO, and Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI.

Along with combating human trafficking, the effort aims to identify possible candidates for deportation. Referring to unaccompanied children as “UAC,” the memo states: “ERO officers should remember they are to enforce final orders of removal, where possible, and HSI will pursue criminal options for UAC who have committed crimes.”

The Homeland Security and Health and Human Services departments did not respond to a request for comment.

Over the last two months, immigration attorneys say, agents have attempted to intimidate minors.

In one instance in California, underage clients answered the door to find agents in casual wear asking about their mother and whether they had a job. Another family reported to their attorney that HSI agents arrived while the minor was at school, yet the agents returned four times in one day looking for the student.

The tactic puts in jeopardy sponsors who lack legal authorization to be in the country or live in mixed-status households, said Karina Ramos, a managing attorney at the Los Angeles-based Immigrant Defenders Law Center.

“It’s definitely going to have a chilling effect on a sponsor, if they know there are going to be immigration officers questioning their status,” she said.

The case of the teenager in Hawaii began April 9 when his older brother was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor illegal entry, according to someone with knowledge of the case.

The teen had entered the country unaccompanied and was previously in federal custody in Texas. He was released to his older brother’s care in 2023. According to the person with knowledge of the case, when the teen was apprehended last month, agents considered whether they could deport him along with his brother.

After his older brother was apprehended, the 17-year-old was placed in a facility for unaccompanied youths in California. Hawaii has no Office of Refugee Resettlement facilities.

Before he was transported to California, teachers who knew the student attempted to aid his release, according to local advocates and the Honolulu Civil Beat. The teachers carried documents showing his aunt could take custody of him if he was released to her.

Advocates said there are intersecting operations in Hawaii — welfare checks on unaccompanied children and enforcement actions against deportable immigrants. At least four immigrant children in two separate cases were recently removed with their parents, who were targeted for deportation, advocates said.

“Having a parallel directive to remove grown-ups from children is never in the best interest of the child,” said Mary Miller Flowers, director of policy and legislative affairs at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. “So it feels like it’s a euphemism for enforcement actions.”

In other parts of the country, young immigrants and their adult sponsors are grappling with what the welfare checks could spell for them.

In Houston, Alexa Sendukas, managing attorney for the Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project, said 21 clients have experienced welfare checks in recent weeks. Those who let agents inside their homes told her that agents walked from room to room, asking questions and taking photos.

In a meeting last week, HSI agents told Sendukas that they had rescued two children from a trafficking situation in the Houston area and found a sponsor who was producing child exploitation material. But she remains skeptical.

“We’ve heard the example of the Hawaii case,” she said, adding that advocates worry that agents doing welfare checks are gathering information they can use in the future. Referring to the ICE memo, she said, “The guidance suggests a multiphase initiative — what does the next phase look like?”

In San Diego, federal agents recently conducted a wellness check at the residence of a girl represented by immigration attorney Ian Seruelo. She is in the process of receiving special immigration juvenile status, he said.

A day after the wellness check, as the girl was visiting her parents, who live at a different location, federal agents stopped them while they were driving to church and detained them for several hours, Seruelo said.

The parents have no criminal record but are undocumented, and their status was probably known to officials, Seruelo said, because they had been in deportation proceedings that were dropped. Neither the girl nor her parents are in custody, he said.

Seruelo said he found the timing of the parents’ detention suspect. “I think they were using the wellness check to get information about the parents,” he said.

Smyers, the former Health and Human Services official, said the public safety and border security justifications noted in the ICE memo about tracking down unaccompanied children are the same justifications used by Stephen Miller, the federal official and mastermind behind the separation of thousands of families at the southern border during President Trump’s first term.

“The American public should be just as galvanized against this as they were to family separation at the border,” she said.

Castillo reported from Washington and Gomez from Los Angeles.