More than 32,000 children failed to appear for their scheduled immigration court hearings.
A recent audit by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General uncovered that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) failed to monitor over 30,000 unaccompanied migrant children after their release from government custody.
« ICE has no assurance UCs (unaccompanied migrant children) are safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor », Inspector General Joseph Cuffari’s report warned.
The audit showed that between 2019 and 2023, ICE transferred over 448,000 unaccompanied children to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The agency struggled to monitor the whereabouts of many of these children after their release from HHS custody. More than 32,000 children failed to appear for scheduled immigration court hearings in the period, and ICE couldn’t account for their location.
The report also states that the number of missing children could be higher due to ICE’s failure to serve Notices to Appear (NTAs) on 291,000 children, leaving them without scheduled court dates and outside the formal immigration process.
