Report: HHS ‘Likely’ Lost Track of Nearly 6,000 Unaccompanied Kids

The Office of Refugee Resettlement may have lost track of nearly 6,000 resettled immigrant minors, according to a Tuesday report from McClatchy’s. Although federal officials disclosed last month that the sponsors of about 1,475 minors did not return the administration’s calls, McClatchy’s reports that those numbers came from only a three-month snapshot in 2017. Given the department’s estimate that 14 percent of families did not return calls, McClatchy’s said that it is “likely” that the Office has lost track of around 5,945 of the more than 42,000 children placed with sponsors in fiscal year 2017. The Department of Health and Human services notes that it is not their responsibility to track the children once they have been placed, and advocates argue that it is likely that some families are deliberately avoiding HHS calls now that sponsors have faced background checks and deportation.