Show-Me State Times

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas following a report published by DHS’s Inspector General. The report highlights significant failures in the agency's ability to protect unaccompanied migrant children.

The report indicates that DHS may have lost track of more than a quarter million unaccompanied children and failed to notify other agencies in certain cases.

“As the report explains, your agency’s failure to issue court notices to these children limits the ability to monitor their location and status,” wrote Senator Hawley. “In the Inspector General’s words: without such ability, there is thus ‘no assurance that [the children] are safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.’”

Hawley continued, “You must immediately provide comprehensive public answers to questions concerning the impact of your permissive immigration policies on the safety of children who may now be prey to child labor criminals.”

Last October, Senator Hawley pressed Secretary Mayorkas on whistleblower claims that the Biden-Harris DHS had pulled agents from child exploitation cases to make sandwiches at the southern border. Last April, he demanded the FBI launch a full-scale effort to locate missing migrant children and bring child labor criminals to justice. He also criticized Mayorkas after reports indicated 85,000 children had gone missing under the Biden Administration.

The letter details concerns about unaccompanied migrant children's vulnerability and cites past failures in tracking these individuals. It emphasizes the importance of issuing court notices for monitoring purposes and highlights that as of May this year, DHS had failed to provide such notices to at least 291,000 unaccompanied children.

Additionally, according to the report, DHS was unable to account for at least 32,000 unaccompanied children who received court notices but failed to appear in immigration court. Furthermore, it found that DHS did not always inform the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement when these children did not appear in court.

Senator Hawley's letter requests comprehensive public answers regarding:

- The current location of over 291,000 unaccompanied children who did not receive court notices.

- Reasons why hundreds of thousands of children were not given appropriate court notices.

- Actions being taken by DHS to track down these children's locations and ensure their safety.

- Internal policies or personnel responsible for failing to communicate with HHS's Office of Refugee Resettlement about missing unaccompanied minor children.

Sincerely,

Josh Hawley

United States Senator