U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lost track of tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors in the past five years.
An internal watchdog for the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday sent a report to Congress titled “Management Alert: ICE is unable to monitor all unaccompanied migrant children released from DHS and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services custody.”
The interim report warns that in the last five years, more than 32,000 unaccompanied migrant children [UCs] are no longer counted by ICE.
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The inspector general's report said ICE could not account for all migrant children released by the Department of Health and Human Services. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
“During our ongoing audit to assess ICE's ability to monitor the location and status of UCs who were released or transferred from the custody of the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), we learned that ICE transferred more than 448,000 UCs to HHS between fiscal years 2019 and 2023,” the internal watchdog reported. “However, ICE was unable to account for the location of all UCs who were released by HHS and did not appear as scheduled in immigration court. ICE reported that more than 32,000 UCs did not appear for their immigration court hearings between fiscal years 2019 and 2023.”
A large portion of these uncounted migrant children are a result of individuals failing to show up for immigration court hearings after being released from government custody.
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FILE – A migrant carries his ICE paperwork after being dropped off at a church that serves as a shelter for migrants seeking asylum, following their release by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, May 19, 2019, in El Paso, Texas. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
“Despite their responsibilities for overseeing the UCs, [unaccompanied migrant children] “Throughout the immigration process, we found that ICE is not always able to monitor the location and status of UCs once they are released from DHS and HHS custody,” the report states.
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“While OPLA issued new guidance to verify the location of UCs who failed to appear for their court hearings and improve coordination with HHS, we found that ICE often failed to follow this guidance or issue corresponding guidance to its officers in the field,” the report continued.
The report was issued by Inspector General Joseph Cuffari and addressed to Patrick Lechleitner, Deputy Director and Senior Official at ICE.
A group of migrants traveling from Texas get off a bus in the West Loop neighborhood on December 5, 2023, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The numbers could be even worse than documented: According to the watchdog's findings, approximately 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children have not yet been flagged for deportation proceedings because ICE has consistently failed to schedule immigration court dates or deliver notices.
DHS and ICE have come under intense scrutiny in recent years as their failure to manage the flow of migrants from South America has led to some countries falling through the cracks.
