The Department of Health and Human Services placed unaccompanied migrant children crossing the border in 2021 with some U.S. sponsors who weren’t properly vetted, raising concerns they could be exploited, according to a new report from the agency’s government watchdog.
The Office of Inspector General issued a blistering 62-page report last week detailing troubling gaps in sponsor screenings administered by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is under HHS’s Administration for Children and Families.
“It is important for ORR to protect children from unsafe placements by taking appropriate steps to screen sponsors while also releasing children from care in a timely manner and without unnecessary delay,” the OIG report states. “The age of these children, their separation from family, and the dangerous journey to the United States make these children especially vulnerable to exploitation.”
The OIG findings are based on a random sampling of 343 cases from March to April 2021, when the ORR placed a record 16,790 children with sponsors.
“We acknowledge that ORR received a surge in referrals of unaccompanied children during our review period in 2021, that created operational constraints and hindered its ability to fulfill its mission,” the report states.
However, the ORR must be prepared to safely place children with sponsors in the event of future influxes, the OIG concluded.
The investigation comes amid reports that ORR has released children to sponsors who have exploited them and forced them to work in dangerous jobs that violate child labor laws.
However, for the most part, sponsors are “good, honest people,” said Rebecca Brown, interim supervising attorney of the unaccompanied minors team at Public Counsel in Los Angeles.
“We need to place immigrant children in a safe environment, not immigrant detention facilities, which have been shown to subject children to unsafe conditions,” Brown said. “We have to make sure we protect…
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