Two young girls, ages five and nine, were abandoned by smugglers at the southern border in Texas this week. The smugglers fled back to Mexico as Texas authorities intervened to rescue the children, once again highlighting the risks to vulnerable minors and the broader consequences of the ongoing border crisis.
The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) reported that the girls, who came from El Salvador, carried only a note with an address and phone number. They were handed over to U.S. Border Patrol after being found by troopers. This tragic event underscores the grim realities faced by unaccompanied children caught in the web of human smuggling and illegal migration.
Incidents of abandoned children are becoming increasingly common, with many minors found carrying scraps of paper or clothing marked with relatives’ contact information. Upon apprehension, unaccompanied children are typically transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and later released to sponsors in the U.S. Critics argue that this system not only places children at significant risk but also contributes to a lack of accountability, exacerbating the border crisis.
This week’s incident comes on the heels of a damning report by the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG), which detailed systemic failures in tracking and managing unaccompanied migrant children.
“During our ongoing audit to assess ICE’s ability to monitor the location and status of UCs who were released or transferred from the custody of the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), we learned ICE transferred more than 448,000 UCs to HHS from fiscal years 2019 to 2023,” the report stated.
“However, ICE was not able to account for the location of all UCs who were released by HHS and did not appear as scheduled in immigration court. ICE reported more than 32,000 UCs failed to appear for their immigration court hearings from FYs 2019 to 2023,” it added.
The report also revealed that approximately 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children have not yet been marked for removal proceedings because ICE routinely failed to schedule immigration court dates and serve notices. These alarming statistics reflect a breakdown in enforcement mechanisms under the current administration’s policies.
The latest ICE report for FY 2024 highlights the growing enforcement gap. Despite more than 500,000 unaccompanied migrant children entering the U.S. during the Biden administration, just 411 were removed in FY 2024 — an increase from the mere 212 removals in FY 2023. For comparison, over 4,000 unaccompanied minors were removed in FY 2022, signaling a dramatic decline in enforcement.
Proponents of stronger border security argue that these failures incentivize illegal migration, putting minors at risk and overwhelming immigration systems. The continued inability to track and manage unaccompanied children not only endangers lives but also undermines the rule of law and national security.
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