The increasing numbers of unaccompanied Central American children coming to the United States pit humanitarian principles against border control priorities. While many think that immigration and asylum laws put in place to deal with adults are inappropriate when applied to children, others thinks the revisions to the law in 2008 to deal expressly with unaccompanied alien children are too generous. While the policy makers at the federal level debate whether the law should be revised, state and local leaders are faced with how to handle those children who are now being temporarily placed in their communities. As these children are unauthorized aliens under the law, their eligibility for federal assistance is narrow and quite limited, leaving local service providers in the lurch. Four leading experts on U.S. immigration and refugee policy will discuss these challenges with an emphasis on the role policy analysis plays in identifying options.