The federal government has reportedly lost 4,000 unaccompanied migrant children who crossed the border since fiscal year 2019, according to a report released Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG).
DHS OIG Report Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials say they have been unable to track all unaccompanied minors who have crossed the border and been released from Department of Homeland Security and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) custody since fiscal year 2019, and the whereabouts of at least 32,000 of these minors are unknown. OIG believes unaccompanied minors are at higher risk of trafficking, forced labor, and exploitation than other migrants arriving at the border.
Additionally, the report found that the actual number of missing minors could be higher if ICE were to place an additional 291,000 unaccompanied minors in deportation proceedings. Failure to do so increases the likelihood that ICE will be unable to contact unaccompanied minors, thereby reducing the agency's ability to identify and verify their safety.
“[ICE] “ICE has failed to monitor the location and condition of all unaccompanied migrant children (UC) or initiate removal proceedings when necessary,” the OIG report said. “During our ongoing audit to evaluate our ability to monitor the location and condition of UC children who have been released or transferred from ICE custody, we have found that ICE has failed to monitor the location and condition of all UC children who have been released or transferred from ICE custody. [DHS] and [HHS]The investigation found that ICE transferred more than 448,000 immigrants to HHS custody between FY2019 and FY23. However, ICE does not know the whereabouts of all immigrants who were released from HHS custody and did not appear as scheduled in immigration court. ICE reported that more than 32,000 immigrants did not appear for their immigration court hearings between FY2019 and FY23. (Related: Over 500,000 illegal immigrants cross the southern border despite Biden claiming he doesn't have the authority to stop them)
Read the OIG report:
DHS OIG Report by Nick Pope On Scribd
As of May 2024, ICE officials had not issued notices to appear to more than 291,000 unaccompanied minors, meaning those children did not have immigration court dates scheduled at that time, the watchdog report said.
Additionally, the DHS OIG warned in its report that ICE has “limited oversight and guidance for unaccompanied migrant children who do not appear in court” and “fails to accurately and effectively share court information about unaccompanied migrant children released from DHS and HHS custody.”
The report laid out corrective steps ICE should take to mitigate some of the issues, including improving data sharing among federal officials. ICE agreed to the recommended course of action.
DHS OIG based its report on a review of ICE data and interviews with more than 100 employees from numerous agencies and offices involved in processing unaccompanied minors crossing the border. OIG's interviews with these employees included meetings with ICE field offices in Miami, Los Angeles, St. Paul (Minnesota), Philadelphia, San Diego, Baltimore, Houston, Dallas, New York, and Chicago.
ICE declined to comment, and DHS and HHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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