Federal officials have noticed that adults claiming to be family members are appearing “several times” to pick up different unaccompanied children from Central America in various detention centers along the border.
A leaked June 4, 2014 internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that Breitbart Texas obtained cites anecdotal evidence from federal officials that suggests that the “same family members” and sponsors “appear several times” to claim the unaccompanied children from the Department of Health and Human Services.
As Breitbart News has noted, under a 2008 law that President George W. Bush signed, illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico or Canada must be turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services within 72 hours and can be placed with a “suitable family member” in the United States. The report also notes that unaccompanied children can only be kept for 12 hours at the initial detention center.
The report found that fewer than 50% of the unaccompanied children have been discharged to a mother or father. The majority of people who have picked up the unaccompanied children have been “adult siblings,” “aunts,” “uncles,” “grandparents,” or “more distant relatives, family, or associates.”
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