On Friday, The New York Times reported that a Department of Health and Human Services official, assistant secretary of the Administration for Children and Families Steven Wagner, had reported to Congress that the HHS had “lost track” of approximately 1,500 migrant children placed with guardians in the United States. According to the Times, this raises concerns “they could end up in the hands of human traffickers or be used as laborers by people posing as relatives.”
The Times’ stunning report continues:
The children were taken into government care after they showed up alone at the Southwest border. Most of the children are from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, and were fleeing drug cartels, gang violence and domestic abuse, government data shows. From last October to the end of the year, officials at the agency’s Office of Refugee Resettlement tried to reach 7,635 children and their sponsors, Mr. Wagner testified. From these calls, officials learned that 6,075 children remained with their sponsors. Twenty-eight had run away, five had been removed from the United States and 52 had relocated to live with a nonsponsor. But officials at the agency were unable to determine with certainty the whereabouts of 1,475 children, Mr. Wagner said.
Unbelievably enough, HHS officials actually gave eight children to human traffickers who used the children for farming in Ohio just a few years ago. HHS pledged to revise its procedures. They still haven’t.
Those in favor of more sympathetic treatment of illegal immigrants will surely use this information as an excuse to suggest that the United States legalize the guardians of unaccompanied children. But the real point is that the government is utterly incapable of handling the immigration system once people are released from custody. This is just as true of the catch-and-release processes used for many adults until recently as it is of children. This is why a strong and orderly immigration system is necessary to protect many of the people who are coming to the United States illegally. While illegal immigration advocates stump for those catch-and-release programs, many oppose serious government follow-up out of fear of increased deportations.
No matter where you stand on the issue of illegal immigration, one thing is certain: the government must do a better job than this. It’s simply criminal for the government to be in the business of facilitating the loss of children in the United States.