The Kids Aren’t All Right: U.S. Migrant Foster Program Is Out of Control
An expansive foster care program for juvenile migrants is ballooning in size and cost. In many respects, it offers services superior to those available to U.S. citizens. But shamefully loose screening protocols have embedded dangerous elements in communities, including a 17-year-old MS-13 gang member who now stands accused of murdering a 20-year-old woman in Maryland.
New funding for long-term care of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) indicates that American taxpayers will get stuck with a much bigger tab than previously disclosed, according to a report by Judicial Watch.
Beyond housing and education, extended benefits include legal aid, mental health services and “acculturation and adaptation” care to help the illegal aliens develop social and interpersonal skills.
A record 368,207 UACs are known to have entered the U.S. since 2021. Judicial Watch reports that nearly three-quarters of them were over 14 years old, and two-thirds were male. Forty-seven percent came from Guatemala, 32 percent from Honduras, 13 percent from El Salvador and 8 percent from other countries.
UACs are almost always allowed to remain in the U.S. and are quickly dispersed to shelters contracted by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
“On its face the foster-care program for migrant youth appears to be superior to the system that manages hundreds of thousands of U.S. children in foster care,” Judicial Watch noted.
But despite the program’s soaring costs of operation, security screening is dismal. The flawed system has allowed hardcore criminals and violent gangbangers to slip through the bureaucratic cracks.
This week it was reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) missed multiple signs that a teenage illegal alien with ties to MS-13 was admitted into the U.S., with tragic results.
Though the 17-year-old – sporting gang tattoos – had been previously arrested in El Salvador for associating with the death-dealing outfit, he was handed off to HHS. The teen, whose name has not been disclosed, ended up on the streets after two abortive foster placements. Months later, he was arrested and charged with the sexual assault and strangulation of Kayla Hamilton, in Aberdeen, Md.
Rodney Scott, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol from 2020-2021, told the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Integrity, Security and Enforcement this week that the government’s screening system is overloaded by the ongoing surge of migrants. He said UACs typically ditch their IDs before arriving, leaving Border Patrol agents to simply “process” them for admission to keep the queues moving.
Opening the floodgates further, the Biden administration reportedly will end familial DNA testing at the southern border. A Customs and Border Protection (CBP) memo sent to frontline officers announced the testing will cease when its vendor contract expires May, 31.
Whatever the rationale for this move, its chief effects will be to expedite entries into this country, encourage more child trafficking and ensure that even more sketchy UACs get lost in HHS’s unaccountable foster care system.