By House Speaker Mike Johnson harshly criticized the Biden administration following the release of a “stunning” inspector general’s report on Tuesday, which revealed that nearly 300,000 migrant children are presumed missing in the US.
“This administration’s failure to secure our border is enabling what amounts to a modern-day slavery operation,” Johnson declared during a press call on Tuesday evening.
Describing the situation at the southern border as both a national security crisis and a humanitarian disaster, Johnson asserted, “Kamala Harris cannot be trusted to fix it” before adding, “this is one of the biggest scandals in American history; it’s one of the most tragic; and we have to hold emergency hearings.”
An internal watchdog within the Department of Homeland Security sent a report to Congress on Tuesday titled “Management Alert – ICE Cannot Monitor All Unaccompanied Migrant Children Released from DHS and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Custody,” according to Fox News.
The interim report warns that over the past five years, more than 32,000 unaccompanied migrant children [UCs] are no longer accounted for by ICE.
“During our ongoing audit to assess ICE’s ability to monitor the location and status of UCs who were released or transferred from the custody of the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), we learned ICE transferred more than 448,000 UCs to HHS from fiscal years 2019 to 2023,” the internal watchdog reported. “However, ICE was not able to account for the location of all UCs who were released by HHS and did not appear as scheduled in immigration court. ICE reported more than 32,000 UCs failed to appear for their immigration court hearings from FYs 2019 to 2023.”
A large portion of these unaccounted migrant children is a consequence of individuals failing to appear at immigration court hearings after being released from government custody.
“Despite its responsibilities for overseeing UCs [unaccompanied migrant children] through the immigration process, we found ICE cannot always monitor the location and status of UCs once they were released from DHS and HHS custody,” the report states.
Democrats have spent much of the week during the national convention in Chicago trying to convince Americans to forget about what’s been happening at the border over the past three and a half years. They have also insisted that despite years of taking credit, Kamala Harris was not named “border czar” by Joe Biden.
On Monday night, wrote The Los Angeles Times, “President Biden touted the sharp reduction in border arrests since he implemented an executive action limiting asylum access, and attempted to draw out differences with Republicans’ position on the issue.
On Tuesday night, former President Obama said Harris could move the country beyond tired debates that stifle progress, because she and running mate Tim Walz ‘understand that we can secure our borders without tearing kids away from their parents.”
Democrats voted to approve their 2024 party platform on Monday, though it hadn’t been updated since Biden dropped out of the race. The platform’s chapter on immigration says a second Biden term would see him push Congress to pass legislation to codify emergency authority to temporarily stop processing most asylum claims; reform the asylum system to strengthen requirements for valid claims; increase the yearly limit of immigrant visas; and support a pathway to citizenship for long-term immigrants who lack legal documentation.”
On Thursday, Donald Trump went to the rugged, desert hills of Arizona near the U.S.-Mexico border to campaign on immigration. The visit, centered around the theme “Make America Safe Again,” saw Trump meet with families whose loved ones were victimized or killed by illegal immigrants during the Biden administration.
In The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s polling index, the former president leads Harris by a razor-thin margin in the Grand Canyon State—with 47.3 percent support to her 47.2 percent.
[Read More: Rumors Swirl As Kamala Accepts The Nomination]
