WASHINGTON, DC- A watchdog component of the Department of Homeland Security is blowing the whistle on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), citing its apparent inability to track hundreds of thousands of illegal alien children sprung loose into American communities under the Biden administration.
In an August letter, DHS's Inspector General accused ICE of failing to track the illegals, who were released from immigration detention after claiming to be legal minors.
“We found ICE cannot always monitor the location and status of unaccompanied migrant children who are released from DHS and HHS custody,” HHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari said of his findings in the letter.
Cuffari described the illegals as an at-risk demographic for exploitation in the letter. “Without an ability to monitor the location and status of UCs, ICE has no assurance UCs are safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor."
Iowa U.S Sen. Chuck Grassley further assailed ICE for the lapse in accountability in a statement released last week. “[The HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)]’s lax vetting has placed migrant children in grave danger of exploitation and abuse and makes locating these children after placement difficult, something I fear hinders the work of DHS as well," he said. "I won’t tire in my commitment to protect these children and bring about needed reforms to ensure they aren’t placed in the hands of traffickers and those seeking to exploit them.”
ICE was unable to provide the illegals in questions with notices to appear in court, as required by US immigration law, according to the report- with 65 percent of the purported children not having been served the notices.
The Inspector General report identified 291,000 purported minors who should have been placed in deportation proceedings, but were not. A further 32,000 illegals who were served notices to appear failed to show up at their court appearances- with the federal government proving unable or unwilling to take action in turn.
In an August letter, DHS's Inspector General accused ICE of failing to track the illegals, who were released from immigration detention after claiming to be legal minors.
“We found ICE cannot always monitor the location and status of unaccompanied migrant children who are released from DHS and HHS custody,” HHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari said of his findings in the letter.
Cuffari described the illegals as an at-risk demographic for exploitation in the letter. “Without an ability to monitor the location and status of UCs, ICE has no assurance UCs are safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor."
Iowa U.S Sen. Chuck Grassley further assailed ICE for the lapse in accountability in a statement released last week. “[The HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)]’s lax vetting has placed migrant children in grave danger of exploitation and abuse and makes locating these children after placement difficult, something I fear hinders the work of DHS as well," he said. "I won’t tire in my commitment to protect these children and bring about needed reforms to ensure they aren’t placed in the hands of traffickers and those seeking to exploit them.”
ICE was unable to provide the illegals in questions with notices to appear in court, as required by US immigration law, according to the report- with 65 percent of the purported children not having been served the notices.
The Inspector General report identified 291,000 purported minors who should have been placed in deportation proceedings, but were not. A further 32,000 illegals who were served notices to appear failed to show up at their court appearances- with the federal government proving unable or unwilling to take action in turn.
“ICE was not able to account for the location of all UCs who were released by HHS and did not appear as scheduled in immigration court."
Sex traffickers and human smugglers have long relied on presenting alleged children to federal agents at the border, posing as family units with the hopes of recieving amnesty, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.
Immigration hawks have assailed President Joe Biden's handling of the immigration enforcement agency, pointing to paltry deportation numbers and a strategy of springing illegals loose instead of detaining those arrested for entering the United States illegally.
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Comments
2024-09-11T12:51-0400 | Comment by: Franklin
They release them with no way of knowing their location now wasting time and taxpayers' money looking for them how foolish is that? Should leave them alone they are not bothering anyone.
2024-09-16T16:01-0400 | Comment by: Chris
I would not blame the rank and file ICE Agents. The blame lies entirely with Biden, Harris, and DHS. They knew there would be no way to track them once released and never intended to account for them.