ICE lost over 32,000 unaccompanied minors: DHS watchdog

The internal watchdog for the Department of Homeland Security has issued a warning that Immigration and Customs Enforcement's handling of unaccompanied migrant children is an "urgent issue."

An interim report to Congress by the agency's inspector general's office, published Tuesday by ABC News, states ICE was "not able to account" for more than 32,000 unaccompanied minors over the last five years.

The agency lost track of the children after they failed to report for immigration court hearings, according to the report. 

"Immigration court hearings are often ICE's only opportunity" to detect "trafficking indicators," so the children's failure to appear "reduces opportunities to verify their safety," the report states.

ICE's inability "to monitor the location and status" of the children means the agency has no guarantee the children "are safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor," wrote DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari in the report.

Cuffari urged ICE, an agency within DHS, to "take immediate action to ensure the safety" of the children.

The interim report is one part of a larger effort to evaluate ICE's ability to track unaccompanied children released from U.S. custody after crossing the border.

From 2019 to 2023, officials transferred nearly 450,000 children from ICE to the Department of Health & Human Services, which is tasked with placing the children with sponsors or foster homes or at other locations.