Page 2 - ARUBA TODAY

A2 UP FRONT
Thursday 16 augusT 2018
Senate study faults government care of migrant children

By ALAN FRAM issue and it's not a partisan
Associated Press one," said Sen. Rob Port-
WASHINGTON (AP) — The man, R-Ohio, the subcom-
government has made mittee chairman.
only incremental improve- The panel's top Democrat,
ments to its troubled efforts Delaware Sen. Tom Carper,
to care for thousands of took a more partisan tone,
migrant children detained saying, "This administration
entering the U.S. without continues to make an al-
their parents, perpetuating ready challenging reality
a problem the Trump ad- for migrant children even
ministration has aggravat- more difficult and more
ed with its "zero tolerance" dangerous."
immigration crackdown, When unaccompanied
a bipartisan Senate report children are apprehended,
said Wednesday. Homeland Security must
The 52-page study said no quickly transfer them to
federal agency takes re- Health and Human Servic-
sponsibility for making sure es, which then tries placing
children aren't abused or them with parents, relatives
used in human traffick- or others until a court hear-
ing once the government ing — a wait that typically
places them with sponsors, In this July 26, 2018, file photo, families with young children protest the separation of immigrant takes 480 days. If a sponsor
who sometimes aren't their families with a sit-in at the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington. can't be found, children
parents or close relatives. Associated Press are held in facilities often
Immigration judges are run by government con-
ordering the deportation haven't provided sufficient significant risk for traffick- subcommittee. It said a re- tractors.
of growing proportions of mental health services for ing and abuse and under- cent attempt at coordina- Once they're with sponsors,
these children partly be- some of them, the report mine our immigration sys- tion between the depart- HHS has trouble tracking
cause the government said. tem," said the report by the ments of Health and Hu- them. In figures originally
does little to ensure they "Major deficiencies persist Senate Homeland Security man Services and Home- released in April, when offi-
get to court, and officials that leave the children at Committee's investigations land Security "does little cials tried calling 7,635 chil-
to offer hope that federal dren late last year who'd
agencies are working to been placed sponsors,
improve" children's safety, they were uncertain where
and it called the situation about 1 in 5 were. Twenty-
"untenable." eight others had run away.
The report comes as atten- Since 2015, HHS has been
tion has focused on anoth- checking on children 30
er set of migrant children: days after going to spon-
more than 2,000 who were sors. The report called that
separated from their par- "a small step in the right
ents as part of President direction" but added, "It is
Donald Trump's policy of concerning that HHS ap-
aggressively prosecuting parently takes no action to
immigrants entering the address the alarming situ-
country without authoriza- ations it discovers when it
tion. makes those calls."
Though most of those chil- It also said that in about 1
dren have been reunited in 7 instances, it couldn't
with their parents or others, reach the sponsors, which
the costs involved "have "should be a significant red
stretched thin" HHS' "al- flag," the report said.
ready limited resources," The report said HHS usu-
the report said. The authors ally doesn't notify state and
wrote that when they asked local authorities when it
that agency to detail its ef- puts children with sponsors
forts to check on children in their communities, let-
placed with sponsors, "HHS ting some fall through the
told the subcommittee that cracks when it comes to at-
it can either work to reunite tending school. When HHS
families or update data — by law turns over children
but not both." to DHS when they reach 18,
More than 200,000 unac- it often doesn't provide re-
companied children have quired recommendations
entered the U.S. without le- for appropriate care.
gal status over the past six HHS has stopped providing
years, and most problems legal services to children
started under President newly placed with sponsors
Barack Obama, the report because it believes it has
said. only "shaky" authority to do
"This is an incredibly difficult so.q