Feds Struggle to Cope with Growing Wave of Unaccompanied Child Migrants
By The Daily Caller. Unaccompanied children continue to be one of the government’s biggest and most complex immigration challenges, Trump administration officials said Thursday.
In testimony before a Senate Homeland Security subcommittee, senior officials with the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Health and Human Services (HHS) told lawmakers that federal agencies are struggling to process and keep track of migrant children after they are caught illegally crossing the southwest border.
Illustrating the point, Steven Wagner, the acting head of HHS’s Administration for Children and Families, revealed that his agency lost track of nearly 20 percent of the migrant children placed with sponsors during a three month period last year.
From October to December 2017, officials at the HHS’s refugee office contacted 7,635 children and their sponsors, but were unable to determine with certainty the whereabouts of 1,475 of them, Wagner said in prepared testimony.
Details of the unaccompanied alien children (UAC) programs came as Congress seeks to evaluate how federal agencies ensure migrant children in their care are tracked as they wind their way through years-long immigration court proceedings. Government watchdogs have found deficiencies in the programs, despite a February 2016 memorandum of agreement between DHS and HHS to establish new guidelines for handling UAC cases. (Read more from “Feds Struggle to Cope with Growing Wave of Unaccompanied Child Migrants” HERE)
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Top Homeland Security Officials Urge Criminal Prosecution of Parents Crossing Border with Children
By The Washington Post. The nation’s top immigration and border officials are urging Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to detain and prosecute all parents caught crossing the Mexican border illegally with their children, a stark change in policy that would result in the separation of families that until now have mostly been kept together.
If approved, the zero-tolerance measure could split up thousands of families, although officials say they would not prosecute those who turn themselves in at legal ports of entry and claim asylum. More than 20,000 of the 30,000 migrants who sought asylum during the first quarter — the period from October-December — of the current fiscal year crossed the border illegally.
In a memorandum that outlines the proposal and was obtained by The Washington Post, officials say that threatening adults with criminal charges and prison time would be the “most effective” way to reverse the steadily rising number of attempted crossings. Most parents now caught crossing the border illegally with their children are quickly released to await civil deportation hearings. (Read more from “Top Homeland Security Officials Urge Criminal Prosecution of Parents Crossing Border with Children” HERE)
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