WASHINGTON — The Biden administration struggled to properly monitor and control the homes where it placed a wave of migrant children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2021, according to a federal watchdog report released Thursday.
The Department of Health and Human Services is required to screen adults who volunteer to take in children who arrive in the country without parents. But the analysis concluded that the department failed to prove that it conducted basic safety checks — such as address or criminal background checks — on some adults who took children into their homes. In about a third of cases reviewed by the federal watchdog, the agency did not have legible documentation for the registered adults.
“We found that children’s records and sponsorship records were not always updated with important documentation and information,” said Haley Lubeck, an analyst for the HHS Office of Inspector General, which conducted the review.
The federal health agency responded to the report by saying it has improved the process and the report shows only limited insight into how the agency handled cases “during an unprecedented influx.” HHS said it has also added new training for its employees who handle migrant children.
“The vast majority of the findings and recommendations relate to case management and documentation issues that (the agency) has already improved through training, monitoring, technology and evaluation,” said HHS spokesman Jeff Nesbit.
The report comes at a time when President Joe Biden is under intense pressure over his immigration policies. Since taking office, the administration has had to deal with millions of migrants traveling to the border and has faced criticism for its handling of children arriving in the U.S. without parents. HHS in particular has been criticized for releasing these children from government shelters too quickly and turning them over to adults who allowed them to be exploited by big corporations for cheap, dangerous, and illegal labor.
The federal watchdog analyzed the records of more than 300 migrant children from early 2021, months after thousands of children headed to the U.S. border to seek asylum. In March and April of that year, HHS placed more than 16,000 children with adults.
HHS is supposed to obtain IDs for the adults – called sponsors – who care for migrant children.
But the federal watchdog found that in more than a third of cases analyzed at that time, illegible IDs were submitted to HHS. Some IDs were missing holograms or blurred images, raising questions about whether they were forged.
The agency also failed to provide evidence that it had carried out basic security checks, such as background checks or address checks, in 16% of cases.
And for every five cases, HHS did not check on the children it placed, often for months.
The plan is for HHS to conduct a follow-up conversation with each child and their sponsor between 30 and 37 days after placement. But in cases where the agency failed to follow up with the children, it took an average of about 122 days for a social worker to make contact, the OIG analysis found.
The OIG’s investigation previously found that the administration rushed to respond to the 2021 migrant surge and failed to adequately train staff handling children’s cases.
Advocates called on both the White House and Congress to do more to protect children in the future.
“Protecting children must remain paramount,” Jennie Murray, president and CEO of the National Immigration Forum, said in a statement. “HHS and the broader Biden administration must take these findings seriously and do everything in their power to ensure children are safe.”
Murray said Congress should not only provide oversight but also provide resources to ensure agencies can properly screen sponsors and protect the children in their care.
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This story has been corrected to increase the percentage of cases where no basic safety checks took place from 15% to 16%.