Laura Mandaro

USA TODAY Network

For the 40,000 children who travelled thousands of miles without their parents on a harrowing migration to the U.S. from Central America, the goal was typically the same: a home with a parent or relative who had already made the journey.

In many cases, that end point was an additional hundreds of miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border and the temporary U.S. government shelters that have been a recent focus for anti-immigration protesters.

Sponsors waiting for the apprehended immigrant children often live in the populous border states of Texas and California. But some also live in the northern-most U.S. states — Maine, Minnesota, even Alaska.

The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement made public a state-by-state breakdown of where these unaccompanied minors had been released to sponsors, people the agency describes as "typically a parent or relative" who can care for the child while their immigration case is processed.