A letter from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security stated that the Office of the Inspector General has found through an ongoing audit that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cannot track the whereabouts of unaccompanied children entering the country, and thus has no confidence they are "safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor" as of August 19.

According to the document, ICE transferred 448,000 unaccompanied children into the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Unaccompanied Children Program to be placed with sponsor families between 2019 and 2023. Of this number, 32,000 unaccompanied children did not appear for their immigration court hearings and remain unaccounted for. HHS also failed to notify ICE if the children did not appear for their immigration hearing, and ICE does not have the ability to serve a "Notice to Appear" to these children.

In a GOP Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee roundtable on July 9, Dr. Jarrod Sadulski, a criminology expert, said unaccompanied migrant children are placed by the federal government's Unaccompanied Children Program often with individuals posing as sponsors or family members. Sadulski explained that the intention of these "sponsors" is to exploit the children. He attributed these circumstances to a "history of inadequately vetted staff having access to children without background checks and security clearances." Sadulski emphasized the need for reform: "There is an urgent need to reform the UC program to mitigate further exploitation and trafficking of children."

According to the management alert, ICE believes that if an unaccompanied child does not appear they are more likely to be a victim of exploitation, trafficking or forced labor.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General was established in 2002 to oversee the improvement of DHS programs and their operation. Joseph V. Cuffari has served as the Inspector General since 2019.