The Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden administration placed unaccompanied immigrant minors in homes that were not considered safe by caseworkers.
The news outlet found that the concerns of lower-level workers were repeatedly overridden, resulting in children being placed with guardians who had previously been rejected.
In the first eight months of fiscal year 2024, there were over 83,000 unaccompanied minor encounters nationwide, according to Customs and Border Protection data.
The report revealed that emergency shelter caseworkers under the Biden administration were instructed to place children in a home within 10 to 14 days, leading to pressure to move children through the system quickly.
Consequently, some minors were placed in homes with ties to criminal activity.
For instance, one child was moved to a “hostel-like” Florida home with three or more adults despite a caseworker recommending against it. The concerns raised by the caseworker were ultimately ignored.
According to sources cited by the WSJ, many of the denial reversals initiated by the Biden administration provided little detail as to why the guardians were later approved.
The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stated that it cannot comment on individual cases but emphasized that child welfare best practices are clear that children belong with family and not in shelters.
The HHS oversaw a network of shelters providing care for unaccompanied minors.
An HHS Office of Inspector General report published earlier this year identified “gaps” in the department’s guardian screening process.
The report revealed that safety checks required for sponsors were lacking documentation in 16 percent of children’s case files.
Additionally, for 19 percent of released children with pending FBI fingerprint or State child abuse and neglect registry checks, their case files were never updated with results.
Neha Desai, senior director of immigration at the National Center for Youth Law, expressed concerns about these unregulated and unsafe sites where enormous pressure was placed on releasing children from custody rapidly.
The report also highlighted instances where caseworkers found allegedly different sponsors residing at multiple addresses connected to the same individual. Supervisors warned that this could indicate sponsors recruiting children for labor trafficking.
A senior HHS official acknowledged significant challenges faced by their initial approach.
They remarked on being stuck with inadequate resources when they started and noted how it did not set them up to meet the challenges faced in 2021.
Reports indicate that unaccompanied immigrant minors under the care of the Biden administration have been placed in potentially unsafe environments due to pressure to expedite their placement into homes without thorough assessments and screening processes.
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