The Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services lost track of tens of thousands of unaccompanied alien children, according to a recently released watchdog report.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not serve notices to appear for 233,000 children dating back to 2021, meaning they were not enrolled in immigration proceedings, the DHS inspector general said in a report filed last month. Of the children enrolled in immigration proceedings, 43,000 failed to appear for scheduled court appearances. Putting the children into immigration proceedings is one of the main ways DHS is able to keep track of them, meaning that the failure to do so increases the risk of trafficking and exploitation.
The DHS inspector general’s report show that HHS failed to provide DHS with complete sponsor addresses for 31,000 unaccompanied migrant children, meaning law enforcement would be unable to keep track of them,
“These issues occurred because ICE did not always receive information about UACs’ sponsor locations from HHS and other Federal agencies. ICE also had limited staffing to monitor UACs’ cases and did not have a policy for all officers to monitor UACs’ cases,” the report reads.
“Without an ability to monitor the location and status of UACs, ICE is unable to facilitate court appearances and has no assurance UACs are safe from trafficking, exploitation, forced labor, or involvement in criminal activities that may pose a risk to local communities.”
In fiscal years 2023 and 2024, HHS sent more than 24,100 children to unrelated sponsors or distant relatives, heightening the risk of trafficking. Many of the children stayed in rundown apartment complexes and motels in areas with high violent crime rates and gang activity.
Making matters worse, the Biden administration limited HHS’s cooperation with law enforcement, hindering HHS’s ability to give DHS timely information about the status of migrant children. The Biden administration feared that sharing sponsor information would prompt action from immigration enforcement, particularly for those who are in the U.S. illegally or have a criminal history.
“My oversight revealed the Biden-Harris administration prioritized speed and optics over the safety and security of hundreds-of-thousands of migrant children. DHS OIG’s report echoes my longstanding concerns and further fuels the fire of my investigative and legislative work. I’ll continue fighting to ensure abuse like this never happens again,” said Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), who has done extensive oversight of the unaccompanied alien children program for over a decade.
In September 2024, Grassley estimated that 150,000 unaccompanied minors failed to answer HHS wellness calls, a separate figure that could overlap with the 233,000 who did not receive notices to appear. It is difficult to determine exactly how many migrant children were lost because of the significant limitations to ICE’s ability to monitor them, but some estimates of the total have exceeded 500,000.
DHS and ICE did not respond to requests for comment.
“At HHS, we will no longer be complicit in endangering the lives of children by allowing adults to exploit our immigration system. For too long individuals have arranged for children to be smuggled in the United States, knowing they will be released to an adult, often without adequate vetting, creating a dangerous incentive that puts vulnerable young children at risk,” an HHS spokesperson said.
“Our priority is to protect children and uphold the rule of law. We are committed to closing the loophole that encourage placing children in harm’s way. We will not tolerate practices that exploit children and put their safety at risk.”
ICE concurred with the DHS inspector general’s four recommendations to mitigate the failures to adequately monitor migrant children. The recommendations contained in the report call for ICE to review its memo of agreement and information sharing with HHS, review system data and send HHS incomplete addresses for unaccompanied minors, develop a plan for filling the notice to appear backlog, and updating guidelines for ICE enforcement officers to raise concerns about the safety of unaccompanied children.