According to U.S. government officials and related emails examined by reporters, federal and local authorities are frantically trying to find nearly a dozen unaccompanied immigrant children after Houston police voiced concerns about a pattern of immigrant children being reported missing in the Texas city.
The incidents highlight the difficulties facing the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden as it deals with an unprecedented influx of unaccompanied minors coming at the southwest border that it must safely and promptly release to sponsors in the country.
According to an HHS official who declined to be named, a Houston police investigator notified HHS earlier this summer after spotting what appeared to be a pattern of migrant children going missing from the homes of their American sponsors.
The federal agency in charge of managing the custody and release of kids who have crossed the border between the U.S. and Mexico without a parent or other adult guardian is HHS.
According to the HHS source and an internal email reviewed by reporters, the HHS refugee office initiated an emergency supervisory assessment of the discharges of unaccompanied minors to non-parent sponsors in the Houston area in August.
According to the HHS official and two additional sources with knowledge of the matter, the agency discovered that 57 unaccompanied migrant children had gone missing in Houston since the end of last year. Nine children who escaped from HHS facilities in the Houston region were counted, the official said.
