Rep. Lance Gooden demands answers from Mayorkas on ‘lost’ migrant children By Biden-Harris Admin |

Texas Republican Rep. Lance Gooden is demanding that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas provide answers about the thousands of migrant children the government has lost contact with and who are at risk of sexual exploitation, forced labor or worse.

Federal immigration authorities have encountered nearly half a million unaccompanied alien children (UACs) at the U.S.-Mexico border since President Joe Biden took office, Godden said in Wednesday’s letter, which was obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Since then, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) has lost track of more than 85,000 UACs in the country, and hundreds of thousands of other migrant children are at risk of exploitation because the government can’t effectively track them.

Gooden’s letter asks how exactly the relevant agencies collaborate in processing UACs and how they are tracked when they are released domestically.

“If the Biden administration intends to keep our nation’s borders open to potential human traffickers, cartels, and other criminals, then (the Department of Homeland Security), in coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is directly responsible for ensuring that unaccompanied children are not lost, trafficked, or abused,” Gooden wrote to Mayorkas on Wednesday.

“Human trafficking has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry that is further fueled by the current administration’s lax border policies. Drug cartels, traffickers and smugglers have even more incentive under this administration’s policies to use UACs to slip across the border undetected,” Gooden continued.

The United States has experienced a border crisis under the current administration, with the latest Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data showing more than seven million illegal border crossings occurring over the past four fiscal years. During that time, hundreds of thousands of UACs — minors who appear before Border Patrol or other CBP officials without a parent or legal guardian present — have entered the country.

These migrant children are first processed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and then, typically within 72 hours of apprehension, transferred to ORR, Gooden said. While UACs await their immigration proceedings, ORR is responsible for placing them in certified foster homes, shelters or other child-friendly facilities.

Gooden, however, blames the Biden administration for a “direct failure to act” for creating a system that potentially exposes these migrant children to human smugglers and traffickers.

“The care and placement of migrant children should be a seamless transition between government agencies to preserve the child’s well-being during a challenging and vulnerable time in their lives,” the Republican lawmaker said. “But to reiterate, both ORR and ICE have lost contact with tens of thousands of UACs during this process.”

A report released last month by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Inspector General found that ICE officials have been unable to track all UACs who have entered the U.S. and been released from government custody since fiscal year 2019. What’s more, the agency does not know the whereabouts of at least 32,000 of those minors.

The report also highlights that UACs are at risk of trafficking, forced labour or other exploitation, unlike other migrants who enter the country illegally.

Given the current situation, Gooden is demanding answers from DHS about how coordination is conducted between relevant agencies in processing and tracking UACs. The Republican lawmaker is asking Mayorkas to answer how often ICE and ORR hold coordination meetings on UAC care, why ICE is currently not allowed to share certain information with Health and Human Services — ORR’s parent department — how ICE ensures that all unaccompanied children are accounted for, among a series of other specific questions.

“The Biden administration and Democrats in Congress have neither accepted responsibility nor been accountable for their failure to close our southern border,” Gooden said. “This has emboldened record numbers of criminal aliens to use migrant children as a ‘free pass’ to cross our border.”

“The Biden administration and its responsible departments must also provide greater transparency in their policies and ensure proper enforcement of procedures surrounding UACs,” he continued. “We expect your full attention to this important matter and look forward to your prompt response.”

(Featured Image Media Credit: (Screen Capture/CSPAN)