Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, said at a Georgia campaign event that Vice President Harris' border policies resulted in the government losing thousands of migrant children to traffickers. Republican vice presidential candidate Sen.
JD Vance, R-Ohio , surrounded by law enforcement supporters at a Georgia campaign event on Thursday, claimed Vice President Kamala Harris' border policies have resulted in the federal government having "lost thousands of innocent children" to sex and human trafficking. Vance appeared to be referencing a Department of Homeland Security inspector general report released earlier this week. As of May 2024, U.
S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had not served notices to appear on more than 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children, "who therefore do not yet have an immigration court date," according to the DHS watchdog report. An audit revealed ICE transferred more than 448,000 unaccompanied migrant children who crossed the border illegally from fiscal years 2019 to 2023.
However, ICE was not able to account for the location of all unaccompanied migrant children who were released from DHS and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) custody during that time frame and who did not appear as scheduled in immigration court, according to the DHS inspector general's office.
ICE reported more than 32,000 unaccompanied minor children failed to appear for their immigration court hearings from fiscal years 2019 to 20.