The U.S government is receiving some major criticism for losing track of 1.475 immigrant children in their custody last year. According to HHS, the Department of Health and Human Services, the children all crossed the U.S border alone and were labeled "unaccompanied alien children."
The children were placed in the U.S with a sponsor and according to Steven Wagner, acting assistant secretary at HHS, attempts were made to reach up to 7,635 children and their sponsors, but only 6.075 of them turned out to still be living with the sponsors. According to the Washington Post, the location of the rest of the children is currently unknown.
Additionally, the decision of the Trump administration to increase criminal prosecutions of parents entering the U.S illegally and separating them from their children has fueled the outrage of the American public. In light of this criticism, President Trump took to Twitter to express his anger towards this new policy, despite the fact that it was with his administration that supported the policy. The policy states that parents that are caught crossing the border illegally, will have their children taken away from them and then they will be criminally prosecuted, according to MSNBC.
Outraged public takes to Twitter
In his tweet, President Trump called for pressure to be put on Democrats to "end the horrible law that separates children from their parents once they cross the border into the U.S." This tweet has had many scratching their heads, due to the fact that Trump's administration is made up of many Republicans.
Put pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from there parents once they cross the Border into the U.S. Catch and Release, Lottery and Chain must also go with it and we MUST continue building the WALL! DEMOCRATS ARE PROTECTING MS-13 THUGS.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2018
This would not be the first time Trump has caused outrage among the public regarding his migration policies.
When campaigning for president, he repeatedly said he would limit immigration from mainly Muslim countries such as Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Syria, Libya, Sudan and Yemen. In the past week, the outrage found it's ground in two hashtags, #WhereAreTheChildren and #MissingChildren.
In response, Health and Human Services officials have argued that it is not their responsibility to find those children since they are no longer in their care after being released from the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which falls under HHS.
FYI, another point about this: we do not know how many of these children weren’t located because they and their relatives in the US (who might even be their parents!) made the decision to go off the grid to reduce deportation risk.
— Dara Lind (@DLind) May 26, 2018
But those arguments have not done much to sooth the angry voices of the public. Twitter users also aimed their fury at Ivanka Trump, President Trump's eldest daughter, when she tweeted a picture of herself, holding her two-year-old son. The image was said to be tactless, in light of the widespread news reports that children were being taken from their mothers at the U.S borders.
The policy an attempt to scare parents away
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been widely judged for his stand on the matter.
On 7 May, Sessions announced that although he understood the circumstances and sympathized with those trying to access the country, the U.S simply could not take everyone in.
In addition, he advised anyone trying to enter the country illegally, not to do so as they would be prosecuted and their children taken away. To many, that was a cold statement. But according to the Washington Post report, those actions may have been put in place to reduce the illegal immigrants and scare parents into not to take their children with them.
John F. Kelly, White House Chief of Staff, said in an interview that this would act as a warning to those migrant parents who might be thinking of crossing the borders.
The Trump administration has long been criticized for its take on immigration.
In December of last year, Trump pulled America out of the United Nations agreement, previously favored by his predecessor Barack Obama. The agreement would have ensured up to 60 million migrants worldwide basic human rights. Trump is also still fighting for the wall he promised his voters he would have Mexico pay for along the U.S-Mexican borders, but Mexico has said they have no plans for financing the construction.