Dozens of migrant children reported missing in Houston, raising alarms

Federal and local officials are scrambling to locate close to a dozen unaccompanied migrant children, after Houston police raised concerns about dozens of migrant children reported missing in the Texas city since last year, according to US government officials and related emails reviewed by Reuters.

The cases underscore the challenges for US President Joe Biden's administration as it faces a record number of unaccompanied kids arriving at the southwest border it must be safely and quickly released to sponsors in the United States.

Earlier this summer, a Houston police detective alerted the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) after discovering what looked like a pattern of migrant kids missing from the homes of their US sponsors, according to an HHS official, who declined to be identified.

HHS is the federal agency that oversees the custody and release of children after they have crossed the US-Mexico border without a parent or legal guardian.

In August, in a rare step, the HHS refugee office implemented an emergency supervisory review of releases of unaccompanied kids to non-parent sponsors in the Houston area, according to the HHS official and an internal email seen by Reuters.

The agency found that since late last year, 57 unaccompanied migrant kids had been reported missing in Houston, the HHS official, and two additional sources familiar with the situation said. Included in the count were nine kids who ran away from HHS shelters in the Houston area, the official said.

As of Aug. 26, 46 of them had been confirmed safe, the official said. So far authorities say they have found no evidence of sex or labor trafficking.

Some of the missing kids who have been located are now 18 or older. A handful left the homes of relatives acting as sponsors to join parents who were in the United States, the official said, adding that the number of cases being reviewed is small compared to the volume of overall releases to the area.

MG