In a recent incident at the southern border in Texas, two young migrant children were left stranded by smugglers who retreated back to Mexico as Texas authorities arrived for the rescue.
This occurrence has reignited concerns about the increasing numbers of unaccompanied minors crossing the border.
According to Fox News, the Texas Department of Public Safety reported that its troopers had found the two girls, aged five and nine, who had been deserted by their smuggler. The children, hailing from El Salvador, were in possession of only a note bearing an address and a phone number. Following their recovery, the girls were handed over to the U.S. Border Patrol.
This incident underscores the escalating issue of unaccompanied migrant children crossing the border, a problem that has seen a significant surge amid the recent migrant crisis. There have been multiple instances of children being found abandoned, often carrying phone numbers or addresses of relatives or others written on paper or sewn into their clothing. These unaccompanied children are eventually transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and released to sponsors within the U.S.
Earlier this year, the issue gained significant attention when the DHS Office of Inspector General submitted a report to Congress. The report revealed that over the past five years, more than 32,000 unaccompanied migrant children had failed to appear for immigration court hearings. Furthermore, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was unable to account for the whereabouts of all those who did not appear.
The internal watchdog stated, "During our ongoing audit to assess ICEs ability to monitor the location and status of UCs who were released or transferred from the custody of the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), we learned ICE transferred more than 448,000 UCs to HHS from fiscal years 2019 to 2023." The report further highlighted that ICE was unable to track all UCs who were released by HHS and did not appear as scheduled in immigration court. "ICE reported more than 32,000 UCs failed to appear for their immigration court hearings from FYs 2019 to 2023," it added.
The watchdog also discovered that approximately 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children have not yet been marked for removal proceedings. This is due to ICE's consistent failure to schedule immigration court dates and serve notices. Despite the influx of over 500,000 unaccompanied migrant children into the U.S. during the Biden administration, ICE's FY 2024 report found that only 411 were removed in FY 2024, a slight increase from the 212 in FY 2023. In contrast, over 4,000 were removed in FY 2022.
This situation raises questions about the effectiveness of current immigration policies and procedures, particularly in light of the increasing numbers of unaccompanied minors crossing the border. It also underscores the need for a more robust system to track and monitor these children, ensuring their safety and adherence to immigration proceedings.
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