Snopes: Did the U.S. Government Lose Track of 1,475 Migrant Children? Rating: True

[Quixote1818]

An official from Health and Human Services reported to a Senate subcommittee that 1,475 unaccompanied migrant children are unaccounted for.

On 26 April 2018, the New York Times and the Associated Press both reported that the U.S. government had lost track of nearly 1,500 migrant children it had placed into the homes of caregivers. The alarming nature of the headlines prompted many readers to question the veracity of the reports, but they are apparently true.

The Times and AP reports were based on statements made by Steven Wagner, acting assistant secretary of Administration for Children and Families for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on 26 April 2018 at a Senate Homeland Security subcommittee oversight hearing, statements which can be viewed in full here. According to that transcript, Wagner told senators:

From October to December 2017, ORR [Office of Refugee Resettlement] attempted to reach 7,635 UAC [unaccompanied alien children] and their sponsors. Of this number, ORR reached and received agreement to participate in the safety and well-being call from approximately 86 percent of sponsors. From these calls, ORR learned that 6,075 UAC remained with their sponsors. Twenty-eight UAC had run away, five had been removed from the United States, and 52 had relocated to live with a non-sponsor. ORR was unable to determine with certainty the whereabouts of 1,475 UAC.

More:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/1475-immigrant-children-missing/

[malaise]

1. Oops!

Rec

[spanone]

2. K&R...

[Kingofalldems]

3. Uh oh--Here they come! This might offend Trump.

Look out below.

[uppityperson]

4. The next paragraph defines what "missing" means/does not mean.

It is still shit, but this isn't quite as bad.

We note that this passage means that ORR made some effort to ascertain the status of children placed with sponsors and were unable to determine where some 1,475 of those children were. This doesn’t mean those children are “missing” in the sense of being outside the home, control, or care of their guardians, but rather that the ORR is unaware of their exact whereabouts at the moment.

We reached out to HHS and were told by a spokesman that when children cross into the U.S. alone, their custody is transferred from the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement, to HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Children are then released to a sponsor in the U.S. who is selected and approved by ORR. These sponsors undergo background checks, and although the majority of such sponsors (85%) are parents or immediate family members, HHS told us, the remainder are typically more distant relatives or non-relatives whom the children had some previous relationship with:

When a UAC is placed with a sponsor, he or she ceases to be in the custody of the U.S. government and all HHS-provided subsistence — food, shelter, clothing, healthcare and education — ends at that point and the child becomes the responsibility of his or her parent, guardian or sponsor....

[Scurrilous]

5. K&R