U.S. Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari released a report this week detailing the thousands of migrant children unaccounted for by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) between fiscal years 2019 and 2023.
“From fiscal years 2019 to 2023, ICE transferred more than 448,000 UACs [unaccompanied alien children] to HHS; most were released to sponsors,” the report says. “However, more than 31,000 of the 448,000 children’s release addresses were blank, undeliverable, or missing apartment numbers. ICE also was not always aware of the location for UACs who fled HHS’ custody.”
Describing numerous failures with ICE’s ability to track the UACs, the report noted that the issues occurred because “ICE did not always receive information about UACs’ sponsor locations from HHS and other Federal agencies.”
ICE had not served Notices to Appear (NTA) to more than 233,000 UAC as of January 2025.
By failing to facilitate court appearances, the report says, ICE has no guarantee that the children are “safe from trafficking, exploitation, forced labor, or involvement in criminal activities that may pose a risk to local communities.”
The report notes that between FY 2019-2023, ICE transferred 448,820 UAC to HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).
ICE has an obligation to “effectively monitor UACs in the country,” Cuffari’s report says, citing an incident where a “UAC was caught smuggling other alien children across the border.”
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) revealed last year that some unaccompanied migrant children were placed in a household linked with the gang MS-13.
Records from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), obtained through whistleblower disclosures from former staff members of the Unaccompanied Children (UC) program, disclosed that HHS knowingly placed two migrant children in an MS-13-associated household.
“HHS, Congress and the American people must face the facts: HHS’ UC program has glaring defects that are harming innocent children,” Grassley said at the time. He explained the records “are the kind the government fights tooth and nail to withhold from the public, and they ought to send a chill up every person’s spine.”
