CHILDREN/DHS/HHS/IMMIGRATION/LEGAL/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Department of Health and Human Services is not taking responsibility for unaccompanied minors once they’re placed with sponsors, according to a Senate subcommittee report released Wednesday [8-15-18], an issue the subcommittee’s Republican chairman called an ‘incredibly difficult issue’…The report found that Health and Human Services had failed to establish rules to protect unaccompanied minors and provides recommendations for improving the system to ensure these children are properly cared for and protected. For example, from October to December 2017, out of 7,635 attempted phone calls to find unaccompanied minors placed with sponsors, HHS found 28 ‘had run away’ and couldn’t determine the whereabouts of 1.475 unaccompanied minors. The report also found the Department of Justice currently has 355 immigration judges handling all the immigration court cases, but has the authority to hire 129 more judges. The current median wait time for an unaccompanied minor is 480 days. The report notes that while HHS and the Department of Homeland Security have taken steps to improve the care of unaccompanied minors, major issues exist that leave the children at risk for trafficking and abuse. The report also found that lot of the problems started in the Obama administration and continued into the Trump administration.”
–Daniella Diaz, “Senate report finds issues with Trump administration handling of unaccompanied minors,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, August 15, 2018 5:01 pm