The Office of Personnel Management issued a memo yesterday seeking to enlist the help of federal employees to assist with the influx of unaccompanied children seeking refuge in the United States.
In partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services, OPM is seeking federal employees willing to serve up to a 120-day voluntary deployment detail to help out with the effort.
The work would be done in partnership with the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). According to the agency’s website, its mission is to “provide people in need with critical resources to assist them in becoming integrated members of American society.”
OPM’s memo adds, “ORR’s Unaccompanied Children Program provides a safe and appropriate environment to children and youth who enter the United States without immigration status and without a parent or legal guardian who is able to provide for their physical and mental well-being.”
OPM notes that the temporary assignments are not promotion opportunities but are reimbursable detail; travel, lodging and per diem will be provided by ORR.
According to the detail announcement on USAJobs.gov, “Detailees will be compensated at their current rate of pay and with their current locality. Grade and step are not affected.”
The detail announcement also states that job responsibilities may include the following:
- Maintain line of sight and supervision of children.
- Assess the needs of unaccompanied children in care.
- Interview unaccompanied children in CBP custody and collect contact information for parents in home country and family members in the US.
- Efficiently collect and provide information to ORR to enable the National Call Center to begin contacting parents and family members to expedite children’s discharge to a US family member sponsor.
- Assist CBP and ORR in identifying children requiring prioritization for placement based on vulnerable category or time in CBP custody.
- Proficiency in Spanish is preferred, preferably with indigenous dialects spoken in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and/or El Salvador.
OPM’s memo adds these details:
The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) needs current Federal government civilian employees for up to 120-day deployment details to support ORR at facilities for unaccompanied children. Locations currently include facilities along the Southwest U.S. border area, specifically Dallas, San Diego, San Antonio, and Ft Bliss. Locations will extend to other geographic areas according to the need. Details will involve contact with migrant children and a variety of other federal and non-federal entities, possibly including U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), American Red Cross, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and other HHS employees. This is a reimbursable detail. Travel, lodging and per diem will be provided by ORR. The detail is not a promotion opportunity.
OPM is encouraging agency supervisors to allow interested federal employees to volunteer for the positions. Interested federal employees must submit application materials via the detail announcement on the USAJobs website.
Full Text of OPM’s March 25, 2021 Memo
Subject: Detail Opportunity: Information for Department/Agency Leadership
The Office of Personnel Management is partnering with the Department of Health and Human Services to support the administration’s urgent efforts to care for and place unaccompanied children who have entered the United States via the southern border. HHS is seeking interested candidates to serve up to a 120-day voluntary deployment detail as part of the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement Unaccompanied Children Program. OPM and HHS are calling upon our federal agency family of exceptional public servants to lend support to this humanitarian effort through this detail opportunity.
The Unaccompanied Children Program provides a safe and appropriate environment for children and youth who enter the United States without immigration status and without a parent or legal guardian who is able to provide for their physical and mental well-being. ORR provides a continuum of care for children, including placements in ORR foster care, shelter, and residential care providers who provide temporary housing and other services to unaccompanied children in ORR custody. ORR and its care providers work to ensure that children are released safely and in a timely manner from ORR custody to parents, other family members or other adults (often referred to as “sponsors”) who can care for their physical and mental well-being.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement needs current federal government civilian employees for up to 120-day deployment details to support ORR at facilities for unaccompanied children. Locations currently include facilities along the Southwest U.S. border area, specifically Dallas, San Diego, San Antonio, and Ft. Bliss. Locations will extend to other geographic areas according to the need. Details will involve contact with migrant children and a variety of other federal and non-federal entities, possibly including U.S. Customs and Border Protection, American Red Cross, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and other HHS employees. This is a reimbursable detail. Travel, lodging and per diem will be provided by ORR. The detail is not a promotion opportunity.
We are requesting that agencies support this effort by encouraging supervisors to allow interested staff to volunteer for the details. In addition, we greatly appreciate swift coordination with the HHS designated interagency coordinator to draft the appropriate documents including the FS Form 7600 (Parts A and B) or similar document, and any other supporting documentation that may be required by either agency. Once the package is fully executed (signed by both parties), details may commence.
Lastly, an agency hiring an individual to work with children in some capacity will need to have the individual undergo a “child care” investigation, which includes specific checks, as directed by the Crime Control Act of 1990, originally codified at 42 USC 13041, transferred to 34 USC 20351. These checks would also need to be performed on existing feds if they have not previously had a child care investigation or child care checks included as part of their investigation. The law does allow an individual to work provisionally before the childcare background investigation is complete so long as the person is “within sight and under the supervision of a staff person with respect to whom a background check has been completed.”
We continue to be inspired by the spirit of volunteerism and dedication to public service demonstrated by all those across the federal government who have supported many response efforts in the past.
KATHLEEN M. MCGETTIGAN, ACTING DIRECTOR, OPM
