Federal Government lost 1500 migrant kids

[K1052]

A top official with the Department of Health and Human Services told members of Congress on Thursday that the agency had lost track of nearly 1,500 migrant children it placed with sponsors in the United States, raising concerns they could end up in the hands of human traffickers or be used as laborers by people posing as relatives.

The official, Steven Wagner, the acting assistant secretary of the agency’s Administration for Children and Families, disclosed during testimony before a Senate homeland security subcommittee that the agency had learned of the missing children after placing calls to the people who took responsibility for them when they were released from government custody.

The children were taken into government care after they showed up alone at the Southwest border. Most of the children are from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, and were fleeing drug cartels, gang violence and domestic abuse, government data shows.

Two years ago the subcommittee released a report detailing how health and human services officials placed eight children with human traffickers who forced the minors to work on an egg farm in Marion, Ohio. The report found that department officials had failed to establish procedures to protect the unaccompanied minors, such as conducting sufficient background checks on potential sponsors and following up with sponsors. As a result, the children were turned over to the people who contracted them out to the egg farm.
To prevent similar episodes, the Homeland Security and Health and Human Services Departments signed a memorandum of understanding in 2016, and agreed to establish joint procedures within one year for dealing with unaccompanied migrant children.

More than a year after the new guidelines were due, the two agencies have not completed them, Mr. Portman said.

Since 2016, health and human services officials said they have started calling sponsors to check on children 30 days after placement. But the agency said it was not legally responsible for children after they had been released from its refugee office.

Mr. Wagner said the agency was re-examining its interpretation of existing laws to make sure that migrant children were not turned over to smugglers or human traffickers.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/04/26/us/politics/migrant-children-missing.html

At this juncture separating kids who actually have parents with them at the border would seem to be incredibly irresponsible and immoral since the government doesn't appear to really give any fucks what happens to migrant children.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Dadgum. So is there anything the government is actually good at?

 

[NostaSeronx]

Dadgum. So is there anything the government is actually good at?

Doing bad things to good people? 🙁

No, they are great at getting bloated and ruining a good system!

 

[glenn1]

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/04/26/us/politics/migrant-children-missing.html

At this juncture separating kids who actually have parents with them at the border would seem to be incredibly irresponsible and immoral since the government doesn't appear to really give any fucks what happens to migrant children.

Yep, I guess this means we gotta lock up the kids also while they're going through deportation proceedings. Maybe some sorta halfway house/restricted egress facility where the family can stay together until they're sent back to their point of origin. Plenty of closed military bases that would fit the bill, I'm sure the base housing at Fort Ord is still usable with a bit of repair.

 

[compuwiz1]

Maybe they just went home?
As a foe of illegal immigration, this story does nothing to me. Parents, if you want to know where your kids are, keep watch over them. Sorry to come off like an insensitive ass, but seriously, this should not be my, or your problem.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Maybe they just went home?
As a foe of illegal immigration, this story does nothing to me. Parents, if you want to know where your kids are, keep watch over them. Sorry to come off like an insensitive ass, but seriously, this should not be my, or your problem.

That's pretty heartless.

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

I guess we should revise that with 'unless you're a foreign kid, in which case we'll lose track of you, possibly to human traffickers, and not care'.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Maybe they just went home?
As a foe of illegal immigration, this story does nothing to me. Parents, if you want to know where your kids are, keep watch over them. Sorry to come off like an insensitive ass, but seriously, this should not be my, or your problem.

bolded: no, you're really not sorry. it's fine, just own it. you ARE an insensitive ass, and obviously the short article is too lengthy for you to read, but the topic is enough for you to waste your played out bullshit on.

From the article:

The children were taken into government care after they showed up alone at the Southwest border. Most of the children are from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, and were fleeing drug cartels, gang violence and domestic abuse, government data shows.

There's plenty more to read in the article. Don't pretend like you're sorry though, own your condescending, holier-than-thou attitude.

 

[dank69]

That's pretty heartless.

I guess we should revise that with 'unless you're a foreign kid, in which case we'll lose track of you, possibly to human traffickers, and not care'.

We could just shorten that to FYGM. Save some money on the engraving for more tax cuts.

 

[K1052]

Maybe they just went home?
As a foe of illegal immigration, this story does nothing to me. Parents, if you want to know where your kids are, keep watch over them. Sorry to come off like an insensitive ass, but seriously, this should not be my, or your problem.

So what exactly do you think is going on in the places these kids are coming from?

 

[thilanliyan]

nm

 

[thilanliyan]

So what exactly do you think is going on in the places these kids are coming from?

Exactly. The families are not coming over to annoy Donald Trump.

 

[compuwiz1]

So what exactly do you think is going on in the places these kids are coming from?

Bad leadership and people not advocating for a better government. It's not the USA's responsibility, as a sovereign nation, to fix that. If we don't stop enabling these countries to NOT fix their own problems, they never will. As long as they think they can depend on us, nothing will ever change. Yeah, that sounds cold, but tough love works.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Bad leadership and people not advocating for a better government. It's not the USA's responsibility, as a sovereign nation, to fix that. If we don't stop enabling these countries to NOT fix their own problems, they never will. As long as they think they can depend on us, nothing will ever change. Yeah, that sounds cold, but tough love works.

Notably, these kids showed up alone at the border.

The children were taken into government care after they showed up alone at the Southwest border. Most of the children are from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, and were fleeing drug cartels, gang violence and domestic abuse, government data shows.

Sorry, it's not normal for children to take up arms against the cartels, as much as you wish they would so they would stop bothering your sensibilities so much.

Sometimes you gotta help kids out, maybe if we treated them like little more than garbage to be thrown away, they'd have greater respect for our nation and take some of our ideals back to their home country at some point? Or at least integrate into our society better, rather than being ostracized and staying 'foreign'.

 

[brycejones]

Bad leadership and people not advocating for a better government. It's not the USA's responsibility, as a sovereign nation, to fix that. If we don't stop enabling these countries to NOT fix their own problems, they never will. As long as they think they can depend on us, nothing will ever change. Yeah, that sounds cold, but tough love works.

If only your ideal policy had been in place when your ancestors came over. Send those fuckers right back.

 

[sandorski]

Bad leadership and people not advocating for a better government. It's not the USA's responsibility, as a sovereign nation, to fix that. If we don't stop enabling these countries to NOT fix their own problems, they never will. As long as they think they can depend on us, nothing will ever change. Yeah, that sounds cold, but tough love works.

"their problems" are largely the result of US Foreign Policy.

 

[brycejones]

"their problems" are largely the result of US Foreign Policy.

He doesn't care. He is incapable of empathy so his default response is fuck em.

 

[glenn1]

If only your ideal policy had been in place when your ancestors came over. Send those fuckers right back.

I'm guessing there's some Native Americans sitting on reservations right now wishing they had done exactly that. Now instead of owning the entirety of the Americas the former inhabitants now hold 2% of the land, mostly in the most marginally habitable parts of the continent and have the highest poverty rates in the nation. And this level of high living only after being subjected to genocide, wholesale atrocities, and inhuman treatment like the Trail of Tears.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I'm guessing there's some Native Americans sitting on reservations right now wishing they had done exactly that. Now instead of owning the entirety of the Americas the former inhabitants now hold 2% of the land, mostly in the most marginally habitable parts of the continent and have the highest poverty rates in the nation. And this level of high living only after being subjected to genocide, wholesale atrocities, and inhuman treatment like the Trail of Tears.

Are you afraid the same thing is going to happen in the US?

 

[UglyCasanova]

Bad leadership and people not advocating for a better government. It's not the USA's responsibility, as a sovereign nation, to fix that. If we don't stop enabling these countries to NOT fix their own problems, they never will. As long as they think they can depend on us, nothing will ever change. Yeah, that sounds cold, but tough love works.

I agree. Ultimately that’s their mess to fix. We aren’t the world police and it never turns out well when we try to be. And automation is killing any need for cheap labor. So shrug

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I agree. Ultimately that’s their mess to fix. We aren’t the world police and it never turns out well when we try to be. And automation is killing any need for cheap labor. So shrug

At what point does the US' responsibility stop? A lot of the shit going on, especially in South America, is a direct result of the US meddling in sovereign nation affairs, not to mention being the big importer of drugs over the last .. 60? years. We helped make that bed.

I don't think we should be all hoo-rah rolling into the mountains with tanks, or something, but taking in children to keep them from ending up as drug mules isn't exactly overburdening our economy or something.

 

[fskimospy]

Bad leadership and people not advocating for a better government. It's not the USA's responsibility, as a sovereign nation, to fix that. If we don't stop enabling these countries to NOT fix their own problems, they never will. As long as they think they can depend on us, nothing will ever change. Yeah, that sounds cold, but tough love works.

Yes, I'm sure US immigration policy is why those countries have not fixed their problems.

It's so strange to me that people act like they are giving tough, needed advice on topics that they clearly do not have the slightest fucking clue about. Dunning-Krueger effect I guess.

 

[UglyCasanova]

If only your ideal policy had been in place when your ancestors came over. Send those fuckers right back.

If that was possible it would be then right thing for the native Americans to do. We sailed across the Atlantic and set up shop like we owned the place (and genocide and slavery to boot). Immigration isn’t always a good thing.

 

[UglyCasanova]

At what point does the US' responsibility stop? A lot of the shit going on, especially in South America, is a direct result of the US meddling in sovereign nation affairs, not to mention being the big importer of drugs over the last .. 60? years. We helped make that bed.

I don't think we should be all hoo-rah rolling into the mountains with tanks, or something, but taking in children to keep them from ending up as drug mules isn't exactly overburdening our economy or something.

I agree we helped make the mess. Our appetite for drugs is fueling the mess. But ultimately they have to fix their own problems, just like we do.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I agree we helped make the mess. Our appetite for drugs is fueling the mess. But ultimately they have to fix their own problems, just like we do.

My point was that it's not 'their own problems', it's a joint problem between us and them. I know we provide aid around the world for misc things, but I don't know that there's specifically a 'sorry for fucking up your country for a century' fund that we've got established with, what, like 75% of C/SA countries?

You cannot cripple a country's stability then point at them and say 'you need to clean your shit up' when someone unsavory fills the power vacuum.

 

[K1052]

Bad leadership and people not advocating for a better government. It's not the USA's responsibility, as a sovereign nation, to fix that. If we don't stop enabling these countries to NOT fix their own problems, they never will. As long as they think they can depend on us, nothing will ever change. Yeah, that sounds cold, but tough love works.

This is totally and utterly divorced from the reality of the situation. Some kid who's parents have been murdered or that a gang/cartel it trying to force into their organization can't "advocate for better government".