Somebody knows where all the children are located.

[kentuck]

They should be reporting their names to authorities.

They are complicit in a crime by covering up for Trump, ICE, or HHS or whomever is separating these children from their parents.

It is surprising to me that people would keep that sort of information secret?

[democrank]

1. We must demand that all names (and locations) are released.

Such vile, cruel indifference.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. I'm not sure that's true. What seems to have happened is that Trump and ICE

decided without much forethought or planning to implement this family separation, zero tolerance policy, and then when they actually had to do it they had no process in place to keep track of the kids once they were turned over to the jurisdiction of HHS. ICE has the parents and HHS and their private providers have the children and nobody thought to come up with a way of keeping track of whose kids were whose and where they went. That doesn't excuse them by any means - it's gross negligence in service of a cruel policy. But I don't think there are people who have that information and have refused to disclose it (and if that information was being kept somewhere it would have almost certainly leaked by now). It was a colossal and inexcusable bureaucratic fuckup.

[kentuck]

3. How could someone be housing the children and not know it??

Private providers or whomever? That doesn't make sense.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. They know that they have kids but they don't necessarily know

who the kids' parents are. They might not even know the names of some of the kids who are too young to talk. These children were just taken away and dumped in these places with insufficient documentation regarding who they are and who the parents are. That's the problem.

[elleng]

9. I agree.

[bitterross]

11. I'm pretty sure you are correct. Sadly and infuriatingly correct.

I'm not angry infuriated at you, of course.

I'm saddened for the families and furious at our government. I saw a British comedian talking about this and he had some points that are probably true. Kids of that age don't know their parents names. They know mom and dad. I can't remember how old I was before I knew my parents names. I remember us having to learn our phone number and address in first grade. Doubtful these kids have had any similar chance to learn information that would be helpful to their reuniting.

From what I've read our government didn't do a damn thing to actually prepare for this. They just started doing it. Not a surprise for this administration. They don't think about the consequences of any decision - they just do it.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if the most anyone has is an informal spreadsheet that someone made at the last minute when they figured out they might need to track these kids. If they even have that I bet there are several incomplete versions.

[Garrett78]

12. I suspect they were fully aware of the fact that reunification would be more than challenging.

And I suspect they were just fine with that.

All that matters to them is they are detaining brown people and those with a conscience are pissed off about it. That's a win-win for them and their base.

[womanofthehills]

13. The system was set up to serve verbal individuals - not younger children

The refugee office typically collects as much information as possible to determine where children should be placed. But in the past, the office dealt mostly with teenagers who arrived at the border alone — not younger children who might or might not be able to describe what they experienced.

“The system was set up largely to serve verbal individuals who often had documentation with them about who they were and who they were going to," said Bob Carey, former refugee-office director during the Obama administration.

According to this article in Politico, there is mega confusion and no instructions how to return the kids.

With a July 10 deadline looming, staffers at the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the division within HHS that oversees the care of unaccompanied children, have received no instructions on how to proceed, the sources say.

“It’s been really difficult to start the reunification process because we just don’t have a lot of direction from leadership,” said one official at the refugee office, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “That’s been slowing things up, because there’s just been a lot of confusion.”

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/02/separated-families-border-children-reunite-664674

[Garrett78]

4. There's no one person who knows where all of them are.

But of course there are people who know where the kids are. Some are in detention. Some are in foster homes. They're all over the US and there was never a plan to reunite. Sadly, some will probably never be reunited.

[kentuck]

5. That is probably true.

But there is someone who knows where each and every one of these children are located, in my opinion.

[Garrett78]

7. Of course. Aside from kids who might be alone and in hiding, they are all being supervised.

[enough]

8. What makes you think that someone knows this? Far worse is that nobody knows. NT

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. Exactly. That's the problem, because there are some kids who might never

be reunited with their parents.

[secondwind]

14. I would bet that DeVos has more than a few.

She would like nothing more than to place the babies in “good Christian homes”.

Two babies, 8 and 11 months old, were dropped off in Grand Rapids MI a couple of weeks ago....... in the middle of the night.

[lostnfound]

15. Maddow reported on grassroots effort to reunite one of the abducted children with mother

People raised funds $13,000 to bail out the woman, then volunteers bring her via a 9-car relay race across country from Arizona to New York where the kid is being held. She won’t be able to have the kid released — the kid will have to sleep there every night — but she is expected to be able to see the kid in the daytime.

These immigrants have no identification to use to board an airplane, and risk was high even on busses that she’d end up detained again by INS, so that’s why we now have a modern day “Underground Railroad” to carry a mother to be reunited with her abducted child in New York.

As of Thursday, they are reportedly not allowing immigrants to be bailed out.

The problem isn’t ONLY that “no one knows where they are”. The Trump administration is actively subverting reunification attempts to get the kids back. What does Trump want the kids FOR? It may be a multipurpose action.

[mopinko]

16. it is pure bull they cant figure this out. we are talking about 2 spreadheets.

2 data bases w a couple thousand names. run a merge. done.
give the parents access to the kid database. they arent gonna pick someone else's kid to go pick up.

[kentuck]

17. At the very minimum, you would think they would know what states they were sent to....

....and what agencies in that state accepted them? If nothing else, they could put forth a public announcement for anyone with information about these children to come forward, if they were involved or knows someone involved. They could offer rewards.

[mopinko]

18. it's bullshit they dont know. they just arent telling.

"this american life" did a story on this this weekend. they talked to a lawyer trying to get a kid back. she said when she called hhs, the guy she talked to looked the kid up in the database, said he could see the kid, but wasnt allowed to say where the kid was.

they are lying. quelle surprise.

[Tipperary]

19. I think they are so incredibly incompetent that they quite possibly do NOT know where most or all

of these kids are.