Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot effectively monitor the location and status of all unaccompanied noncitizen children, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General said in a report.

The office, which conducts investigations and audits of DHS operations, said ICE can’t monitor the children once they are released or transferred from the custody of DHS and the Department of Health and Human Services, the report says.

Part of the reason why ICE had issues, according to the OIG report publised on Tuesday, is that the agency did not always receive information from HHS and other agencies about the locations of sponsors of the children.

From fiscal years 2019 to 2023, ICE transferred more than 448,000 unaccompanied noncitizen kids to HHS, which then released them to sponsors, OIG said. But more than 31,000 of the release addresses were blank, undeliverable or missing apartment numbers, the office said, adding that ICE was also not always aware of the location of unaccompanied children who fled HHS’s custody.

ICE did not issue instructions to appear before an immigration judge to all unaccompanied kids either, according to the report. As of this past January, the agency had not served the notices to more than 233,000 of the kids. More than 43,000 of the children that were actually served the directives, the report notes, did not appear for scheduled court dates. The issues with monitoring the immigration cases stemmed from limited staffing, the report says.

“Without an ability to monitor the location and status of [unaccompanied alien children], ICE is unable to facilitate court appearances and has no assurance UACs are safe from trafficking, exploitation, forced labor, or involvement in criminal activities that may pose a risk to local communities,” the report reads.

Attached to the report is a response from ICE Chief Financial Officer and Senior Component Accountable Official Jennifer Cleary. She said the agency is committed to coordinating closely with HHS to ensure the “timely” and safe transfer of unaccompanied noncitizen children from DHS. ICE is also committed to strengthening coordination and information sharing of the kids once they are released or transferred from DHS and HHS custody, Cleary wrote.

Have questions, concerns or tips? Send them to Ray at rjlewis@sbgtv.com.