KIND Best Practice Brief: The Central American Minors Program

Hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied children travel through Mexico each year, many seeking to reunite with parents or close relatives in the United States. Until recently, there was no formal mechanism to facilitate safe, legal reunification in a third country—even when it was in a child’s best interests. The U.S.–Mexico Binational Protocol, developed with support from UNHCR and UNICEF, changed that. Under this program, Mexican child protection authorities identify children for whom reunification in the U.S. is safest, then coordinate with U.S. counterparts for their legal transfer across the border. The process includes best interests determinations (BIDs), rapid case processing, legal and psychosocial support, and safeguards to prevent children from returning to danger. This scalable, replicable model offers a humane, rights-based solution to family separation and serves as a blueprint for cross-border child protection worldwide.