Wall Street Journal
By Natalie Andrews
August 16, 2018
WASHINGTON—Thousands of unaccompanied minors who crossed the border illegally aren’t being tracked and cared for after being placed with sponsors by the Health and Human Services Department, according to a bipartisan Senate investigation that faulted the HHS and Homeland Security departments for the lapse.
Representatives from HHS and the Justice Department pushed back in a Senate subcommittee hearing Thursday, with an HHS representative saying the agency has started doing background checks on adults that volunteered to take care of the children and that the department wasn’t responsible for children once they are placed with sponsors.
“There are no lost children. There are some families that don’t take our call,” Commander Jonathan White, a coordinating official for HHS, said in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on investigations hearing. “Many immigrant families after the child leaves our care do not want anything to do with us.”
More than 200,000 unaccompanied minors have crossed the border illegally since 2012, according to the report, which was released this week. Many of the children are from Central America and have made an arduous journey and are seeking asylum, the report said. DHS transfers them to the care of HHS, which facilitates placement with a volunteer sponsor, prioritizing a parent or relative, if one is available.
Robert Gaudian, an acting deputy assistant director for field operations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency cares for the children during the short time they are in DHS care—and they want Congress to pass immigration legislation that would change the system.
“ICE’s role in the care of unaccompanied children is very narrow” said Mr. Gaudian. “We have submitted some legislative proposed reforms to close the loopholes and certain legislation to eliminate the push and the pull factors that are driving these” unaccompanied minors into the country.
The investigation, which was led by Sens. Rob Portman (R., Ohio) and Tom Carper (D., Del.), looked at years of federal government programs designed to care for children who enter the U.S. without a parent or legal guardian. The issue gained renewed focus when the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy was enacted in April, separating thousands of children from their parents at the border and putting the children in HHS care. After a public outcry, the policy was stopped.
Mr. White said that states are responsible for the child’s welfare after a minor is placed with a sponsor, but the report found that HHS doesn’t notify state officials when a child has been placed there.
“There are very real questions about who are the appropriate” contacts, said Mr. White.
The Senate investigation found that no follow-up care is given to children who are placed with sponsors, outside of a phone call 30 days after placement. An examination of those calls from October to December 2017 showed that HHS doesn’t know with certainty where about 20% of the unaccompanied children are three months after being placed. Senators asked why HHS isn’t following up if a phone call is unanswered.
“There are lost children, clearly,” Mr. Portman said. “Of course there are lost children. And that’s the whole point here. No one is responsible.”
Mr. Portman said many of the children’s whereabouts are unknown to the government, and senators worry that lax oversight can put the children at risk for trafficking and abuse. When the children don’t appear for immigration hearings, they can be ordered to be removed from the country in absentia. Senate investigators found that many children don’t appear because they live far from immigration courts and don’t have ways to get there.
The percentage of children who failed to attend their hearing and were ordered removed in absentia increased from 41% in 2016 to 48% in 2017.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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