“There are NOT 320,000 missing children.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn read this claim made by Aaron Reichlin-Melnick during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on mass deportations this week.
Reichlin-Melnick is a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council and was one of the witnesses during the hearing.
Are 320,000 child migrants missing?
This discussion stems from a report filed in August by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
“This alert informs you of an urgent issue we discovered during an ongoing audit and the actions ICE has taken to address the issues. Specifically, we found ICE cannot always monitor the location and status of unaccompanied migrant children who are released from DHS and HHS custody,” the OIG stated.
Between Fiscal Years 2019 and 2023, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) transferred more than 448,000 unaccompanied children (UCs) to Health and Human Services (HHS).
More than 32,000 UCs failed to show for their immigration hearings and 291,000 UCs were never served with a Notice To Appear (NTA). When added together, this figure tops 323,000.
UCs who do not appear for immigration court are at a high risk of being trafficked, exploited, or forced into labor.
When a UC is encountered at the U.S. border, a complex web of agencies become involved in finding a ‘sponsor’ for the child.
HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement is in charge of placing the child with a sponsor. This process is not always safe. Whistleblower Tara Rodas has stated that many migrant children are being released by HHS to sponsors who are not properly vetted, including people associated with dangerous criminal organizations like MS-13 and the 18th Street gang.
Numerous publications, including the New York Times and the Free Press, have done deep dives into the whereabouts of children who are exploited and trafficked after they are encountered at the U.S. border.
The OIG report states that, if a UC does not show up for court, ICE does not always notify HHS and has no plan to follow up with the child.
“ICE cannot monitor location and status of all unaccompanied migrant children released from HHS custody,” the OIG said.
Reichlin-Melnick is correct in stating that some of these 320,000 children may still be living at the exact address that ICE or HHS has for them.
But the reality is this information is not readily available to the involved agencies, and the system has been completely inundated with well over 500,000 UCs during the Biden-Harris administration.
The reality is that human smuggling operations are utilizing these convoluted processes and are exploiting government agencies’ failings.
Scores of minors are being smuggled into the U.S. on a daily basis and many end up in unconscionable situations.
In conclusion, the term “missing children” is appropriate and correct.