US: Dozens of migrant children reported missing in Texas
More than 200,000 non-Mexican minors have been caught crossing the border alone since Biden took office
Federal and local authorities are scrambling to locate nearly a dozen unaccompanied migrant children in Houston, Texas, according to US government officials and related emails.
The cases underscore the challenges for US President Joe Biden’s administration as it faces a record number of unaccompanied kids arriving at the southwest border who must be safely and quickly released to sponsors in the United States.
Earlier this year, a Houston police detective alerted the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) after discovering what looked like a pattern of migrant kids missing from the homes of their US sponsors, a HHS official said.
The HHS federal agency oversees the custody and release of children after they cross the US-Mexico border without a parent or legal guardian.
In August, in a rare step, the HHS refugee office implemented an emergency supervisor review of releases of unaccompanied kids to non-parent sponsors in Houston, according to the HHS official and an internal email seen by Reuters.
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The agency found that since late last year, 57 unaccompanied migrant kids were reported missing in the Texas city, the HHS official and two other sources said.
As of last week, 46 of them were confirmed to be safe, the official noted. So far, authorities say they found no evidence of sex or labor trafficking.
More than 200,000 non-Mexican minors have been caught crossing the border alone since Biden took office in January 2021.