DHS Is Working to Find Missing Unaccompanied Alien Children

For four years, hundreds of thousands of minors arrived at the southern border without a parent or a legal guardian. The whereabouts of many of those children remain unknown, but immigration authorities are working to confirm their status, the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security says.

“Among the most vulnerable populations [the Department of Homeland Security] encounters are unaccompanied alien children, referred to as UACs,” Joseph Cuffari said Wednesday at a House Oversight Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement hearing, “Catch and Release, Lose and Forget: Addressing the Crisis of Unaccompanied Alien Children.”

Between fiscal years 2019 and 2023, more than 448,000 unaccompanied alien children were transferred from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services, Cuffari told members of the committee. Most of those children were placed in the care of a sponsor.

A recent audit conducted by the inspector general’s office found “significant gaps in how ICE monitors and manages the cases of UACs once they’re released from federal custody,” Cuffari said, also noting that limited ICE staff coupled with a massive influx of illegal immigration contributed to the challenge of monitoring the status of unaccompanied minors.

Among the 448,000 minors to enter the U.S. in recent years, ICE failed to issue more than 233,000 notices to appear in immigration court, according to the inspector general. Furthermore, more than 43,000 migrant children who were given a notice to appear in immigration court failed to do so.