US official: Agency did not lose immigrant children

WASHINGTON: Over 1,500 immigrant children who have entered the United States unaccompanied are not “lost”, as Senate testimony by an administration official in April suggested, a US Health and Human Services official said, as outrage over their treatment triggered a social media storm.

Deputy HHS Secretary Eric Hargan issued a statement and fact sheet on Monday night saying the department’s Office of Refugee Resettlement attempted to follow up on the 2016 release of unaccompanied children by contacting their families, a step he said was not required of the department.

Following news reports of children lost in the system after crossing the border illegally, outrage erupted on social media after reports emerged that HHS over the past three months of 2017 lost track of 1,475 children who crossed into the United States from Mexico by themselves and were placed with sponsors.

The figures had been cited by HHS official Steven Wagner in Senate hearing testimony in late April.

“These children are not lost; their sponsors who are usually parents or family members and in all cases have been vetted for criminal

Their sponsors simply did not respond or could not be reached when this voluntary call was made. Eric Hargan

ity and ability to provide for them, simply did not respond or could not be reached when this voluntary call was made,” Hargan said.

Hargan said that despite voluntary efforts by HHS to check on their whereabouts, sponsors often did not answer calls because they themselves were illegal immigrants, which he said revealed a “fundamental flaw” in US policy that incentivised immigrants to break immigration laws.

President Donald Trump and highlevel administration officials have been defending the policy of separating immigrant children from their parents as part of tougher border enforcement measures. — Reuters