House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) criticized the Biden administration after an Inspector General’s report revealed that nearly 300,000 migrant children have gone missing in the United States. The report, released on Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, showed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) failed to locate over 291,000 unaccompanied children who had been released to domestic sponsors as of May 2024.
According to Johnson, the Biden administration’s failure to secure the border has facilitated a “modern-day slavery operation.” He described the southern border as a “national security disaster” and a “humanitarian catastrophe,” asserting that Vice President Kamala Harris cannot be trusted to fix it. Johnson called for emergency hearings on this issue, which he referred to as one of the biggest scandals in American history and one of the most tragic.
Between fiscal years 2019 and 2023, a total of 448,820 unaccompanied children were transferred from ICE to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and then to sponsors nationwide. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra reportedly pushed his staff to release these children quickly, with some being placed in unsafe conditions with sponsors.
One ICE officer mentioned that the agency had “limited authority to respond” even when an unaccompanied child’s sponsor claimed the UC was in an inappropriate relationship with her husband. A HHS whistleblower also revealed that an agency attorney acknowledged the rapid release policy due to fears of being sued for keeping them too long, but not from traffickers.
The report noted that “Without an ability to monitor the location and status of UCs, ICE has no assurance UCs are safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.” Johnson argued that this issue is a direct result of the Biden administration’s decision to end Title 42 and resettle children with unvetted sponsors as quickly as possible to avoid negative optics about their policy.
This report follows an internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report earlier in August that found potential massive fraud among thousands of sponsors for the migrants. The Biden administration subsequently halted the flights program to review applicants, while President Biden stated at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that immigration was under control and border encounters had dropped over 50.
Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) dismissed these claims as “absolutely absurd,” pointing out that the figure excluded more than a million admissions into the US via the CBP One app. In February, the House voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for failing to enforce immigration law, but Senate Democrats voted against putting Biden’s top border official on trial. Johnson referred to these statements as part of “the largest gas lighting operation in the history of American politics.
The Post has reached out to DHS and the Harris campaign for comment on this issue.
