Here's what really happened to the 1500 'missing' immigrant children

According to the latest reports, the US Department of Health and Human Services missed out on 1500 immigrant children. There is confusion about whether they were separated from their families at the border or not.

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CNN figured out what it all means.

1500 immigrant children are not necessarily divided on the border with their parents

In early May, the Trump administration announced that it would begin to implement the “100% criminal responsibility” policy at the border, according to which anyone who will cross the border illegally will face federal charges.

Execution of this order means that children will be separated from their families, since children cannot accompany adults who have come under federal control.

Because of the special attention paid to this new policy, people again turned to the April statements made by Stephen Wagner, a senior official in the Department of Health and Human Services. During this hearing, Wagner said that the Refugee Resettlement Authority (ORR) “is unable to determine with certainty the location of 1475 UAC (unaccompanied migrant children)”.

Some people began to conflate Wagner's comment and the new policy, forming the idea that these children were forcibly separated from their families at the border and then lost. In fact, Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) officials were unable to locate the children between October and December 2017—before this new policy took effect.

In fact, unaccompanied immigrant children do not cross the border with their families—hence the designation “unaccompanied.” Some of the 1500 children may have been separated from the groups with which they entered the country, but this would not be the result of the Trump administration's new policy. For example, if a child comes with an adult and there is no confirmation that the adult is the parent or legal guardian, the adult and child will be separated.

“Historically, when a child appears in the United States without a parent or legal guardian, and if there is already a parent, guardian or relative, they are [children ed. ForumDaily] will be hosted by this “sponsor” person while immigration hearings are underway, ”said Jennifer Ward, an immigration and family services expert who worked for 10 for years as executive director of the Tennessee Refugee Relocation Agency.

Ward says that ORR usually visits a sponsor a few weeks or months after placing the child. According to Wagner, such an action is part of the ORR process, but the agency “is not legally responsible for children after they are transferred to a relative or guardian in the United States.

Children, most likely, did not disappear

When it comes to children, phrases like “inability to locate” never inspire peace of mind, especially when people assume that this is because the child has been separated from his family. But the reality is a little different.

“There could be many reasons why 1475 children went missing,” says Ward.

“Sponsors may be undocumented themselves, they may change their phone number,” she says. “The requirement is just a phone call—you don’t have to have a physical check (check on the baby), although some do.”

Wagner also defended his initial statement, adding that sponsors who are "illegal foreigners" probably "do not want to be disturbed by the federal authorities."

During a conference call with journalists organized by the White House on Tuesday, Wagner said that phone calls were unanswered for 30 days.

“You can imagine that many of them would not want to talk to a federal official on the phone,” Wagner said. “But there is no reason to believe that anything happened to the children.”

But this does not mean that all is well

Some immigration experts have said that the lack of attempts to track children by the ORR can be a good procedure, because children can live their lives without constant fear of deportation.

That fear—that ORR is working with ICE to facilitate deportation—could definitely cause immigrants to avoid contact, Ward says.

But it can also put children at risk in another.

"They need to feel safe enough to say, 'Hey, I'm here and I'm okay,' because if they don't, terrible things can happen," she says. “There is a potential for abuse.”

Children may fall into the hands of traffickers or be forced to participate in gangs.

For example, a hearing was held last month on eight children who, after being placed by the government with sponsors, were sent to work at an egg farm in Ohio by human traffickers.

Read also on ForumDaily:

How do illegal immigrants live in New York?

What may change in American immigration policy

Immigration laws of different states that are worth knowing

ICE told how illegal immigrants are deported and how much it costs

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