Firstly, they are children. No matter how you feel about undocumented people in this country, children being shoved into our country by parents who think they are going to give them a better life and we accept them – they matter. They are unable to fend for themselves. When our country accepts them, we are basically taking them as a dependent. Sticking them where ever we feel like it to deal with getting them out of the way, is unacceptable. Saying we made phone calls – three attempts – is not enough. As an ex-social worker, it would not have been enough for my foster kids. For their future well-being in our country, it is not enough and they don’t deserve this. You should pay attention and here is why.

I write immigration evaluations for people who have a Hardship, are in a Domestic Violence relationship or are here on a Political Asylum. When I read in the Daily Wire that 85,000 unaccompanied minors had gone missing in the United States, I was outraged by this. I decided to do some further sleuthing to see what this was all about. I read this Newsweek article, which is an essentially “Its Not Biden’s Fault,” blabber piece about how the ORR (Office of Refugee Resettlement) tried calling their “foster placements” and they didn’t pick up the phone after three tries. They also mentioned that they were under no obligation to do so. Really? And that is that?

Then I read this article from the National Immigrant Justice Center, which is talking about final regulations trying to be implemented to support these minors. This mentions that some of these placements that the kids are in were “unvetted,” or unlicensed. It also mentions blatantly, that in some states, that aren’t in favor of immigrants, are telling CPS (Children’s Protective Services) to take less time to respond to child abuse and neglect calls from these type of children’s homes. Whether or not this last part is true or not, I question considering CPS is mandated by federal laws to respond to these calls and have certain guidelines in how fast they have to go out to these homes. Abuse is abuse. When a mandated caller or a complete stranger (neighbor, church) calls CPS, they aren’t going to say “Oh and by the way, these kids are undocumented.” They usually explain the nature of their call. CPS doesn’t ask about their status (I recall this was illegal anyway), they ask more details about the abuse or neglect.

Would we put up with this if we read that 85,000 American foster children were unaccounted for? Hell NO! I should point out that some of our foster children ARE undocumented children themselves. I know because I helped one of my children get Special Juvenile Immigration Status. This affords them citizenship in the US but does not allow them to provide green cards for the rest of their family. Why? They don’t want families beating their kids, putting them in CPS, so they will then turn around and get the whole family documented.

By accepting these children into the US and taking the liberty of putting them into homes, we are essentially taking them as wards of the state. As such, we should be providing them with the same standards of care that a foster child would receive. What this means is that we license these homes, have specially trained social workers on their cases – because they need to be followed and tracked, AND afford them the same monthly check-in that a child gets (is expected to have) in regular foster care.

What do you imagine happens to a child who is dumped into a foreign country? They don’t speak English, they have been abandoned by their parents, they are a vulnerable population. When children are vulnerable, and people know the US doesn’t pay attention (Jeffrey Epstein), they fall prey to all kinds of bad people – human trafficking: child labor, prostitution, illegal adoptions, organ transplants, I am sure there are more things I can’t even imagine. It is sickening to think people are more focused on who is the president than the life of a child.

The fact that this is going on in our country and is being turned into a political argument is even more disgusting and hiding the truth even more. What will happen to these kids in the future is they will grow to resent our country, turn on us and begin to commit their own crimes. They will become unhappy people and have a fate not much different then some foster kids who end up in jail or prison themselves (50% by the age of 17). This is telling you about the mental health issues facing children who are dependents of the court and are followed up on monthly – or at least are supposed to be (not all social workers do their jobs well either). The issue is vast but it needs to be paid attention to immediately, not bash politics or wait and see who gets elected. If it is 50% for foster kids, what do you imagine will happen for 85,000 children lost in the system, dumped into our country by their parents – abandoned, misplaced, afraid, and wanting to be loved and nurtured? Wanting a home that is safe and reliable, with a family who cares about them.

We need to pay attention right now! Our future in this country depends on our current actions toward children. Shame on the US for lack of action.