Feds deflect accountability for immigrant kids after placement with sponsors, fueling bipartisan frustrations: Report

Despite a backlog of unaccompanied undocumented children who have crossed the southern border without a parent or legal guardian, several federal agencies have failed to address deficiencies that create "significant risk for trafficking and abuse" for immigrant minors who are placed into homes with sponsors, a new bi-partisan Senate investigation concludes.

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a 52-page report Wednesday, charging that no federal agency will claim legal responsibility for unaccompanied undocumented children once the Office of Refugee Resettlement places the individual with a sponsor — leaving the children vulnerable to human trafficking and abuse.

The findings come as Sens. Rob Portman and Tom Carper, the chairman and ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), held a hearing Thursday to examine efforts by the Departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and Justice to protect unaccompanied undocumented children from human trafficking and other forms of abuse.