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Latta Statement on DHS Report of Nearly 300,000 Illegal Immigrant Children Missing in U.S.

Bowling Green, August 21, 2024

Congressman Bob Latta (OH-05), who has traveled to the southern border 4 times, today released the following statement after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a report detailing nearly 300,000 illegal immigrant children are unaccounted for in the United States:

"The open border policies of the Biden-Harris administration have led to a national security and humanitarian crisis unlike we have ever seen along our southern border. With the release of this DHS report, the pressing question remains: where are these missing children? It is deeply disturbing that, according to the report, Immigration and Customs Enforcement have 'no assurance' these missing immigrant children are 'safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.' This is completely unacceptable.The Biden-Harris administration must be held accountable for this extreme dereliction of duty."

Excerpt from the DHS report:

“As of May 2024, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had not served a Notice to Appear (NTA) or scheduled a court date for more than 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children (UCs). In each ICE location we visited, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) could not serve NTAs on all UCs. At one location we visited, 34,823 (84 percent) of 41,638 UCs in the local area had not been served NTAs to initiate immigration proceedings…Without an ability to monitor the location and status of UCs, ICE has no assurance UCs are safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.”

The southern border under the Biden-Harris administration: 

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, since President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office, there have been:

  • over 10 million illegal immigrant encounters nationwide,
  • over 8.2 million illegal immigrant encounters at the southern border, and
  • roughly 2 million known gotaways who evaded U.S. Border Patrol.

In March of 2021, Vice President Harris was appointed by the President to serve as his Border Czar. Since that time, illegal immigrant crossings at our southern border reached over 300,000 in a single month, which is the highest number of illegal crossings in recorded history.
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