Federal officials lost track of nearly 1,500 unaccompanied migrant children last year after they were placed in the homes of adult sponsors, officials told the Senate on Thursday.
Limited budgets for tracking migrant children after they are placed in foster homes led to the Department of Health and Human Services losing track of as many as 1,475 children who could not be accounted for after HHS officials attempted welfare checks, according to an Associated Press report of the testimony.
Between October and December of last year, HHS officials completed welfare checks on 7,635 migrant children the agency says are living with adult sponsors in the U.S. Of those 7,635 children, 6,075 were still living with their sponsors, 28 had run away, five had been deported and 52 were living with someone else.
The rest were completely unaccounted for, the agency admits.
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