5. Department of Homeland Security · Major · Needs Congress
Move the Office of Refugee Resettlement from HHS to DHS
Printed page 166 5. Department of Homeland Security
“Department of Health and Human Services: Agree to move the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to DHS or, alternatively, implement an aggressive and regular effort by the Secretary of HHS to ensure that ORR is fully pursuing presidential objectives in support of DHS.”
Printed again in Chapter 14.
Printed page 478 14. Department of Health and Human Services
“The Office of Refugee Resettlement should be moved to the Department of Homeland Security.”
What has happened
- Not started
No bill, order, or reorganization moving ORR from HHS to DHS found; ORR is still issuing Federal Register notices as an HHS office (latest 2026-08-05). The Mandate's fallback (HHS ensuring ORR supports DHS) is a management posture we did not try to measure.
No action found yet. This entry is the starting point, not a finding.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- ORR remains at HHS: the federal records we keep and search hold 30-plus HHS/ORR Federal Register notices through 2026-08-05 (information collections, the 2026-03-27 rule Reducing Bureaucracy and Burden for Refugee Resettlement Programs, the 2026-07-14 eligibility-period notice). No DHS document claims ORR functions.
- Presidential Determination on Transferring the United States Program of Initial Refugee Resettlement (signed 2025-09-30, FR 2025-19753) surfaced in that search; it concerns the State Department’s initial-resettlement program, not ORR’s placement at HHS. Surfaced, not read — a lead only.
- H.R. 4371 Kayla Hamilton Act (passed House 2025-12-16, 225–201) amends how ORR makes placement determinations (6 U.S.C. 279(b)(2), TVPRA §235(c)(2)) in consultation with DHS — closer to the Mandate’s fallback than to the move; logged under #349.
- Action
- transfer
- Object
- Office of Refugee Resettlement
- ID
- 450