A House committee probing the ongoing border crisis has subpoenaed Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra for information about tens of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children who have disappeared inside the US.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) compelled Becerra, in a Thursday cover letter exclusively obtained by The Post that accompanied the subpoena, to hand over documents related to the “vetting, screening, and monitoring” of migrant sponsors by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).

Without proper vetting, migrant kids are at risk of sex trafficking, forced labor and other forms of exploitation, according to a Homeland Security inspector general’s report released last month.

HHS officials have stalled for more than a month and a half after the Homeland Security panel initially requested the records on Aug. 12. The subpoena responses are due Oct. 3.

Read more here.

ICE Deputy Director Patrick Lechleitner sent a letter Wednesday to U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, saying as of July 21, there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on the agency’s non-detained docket (NDD), meaning they are not detained while they await immigration proceedings.

“Of those, 435,719 are convicted criminals, and 226,847 have pending criminal charges,” Lechleitner wrote.

The letter was sent after Gonzales in March asked the Department of Homeland Security for data on migrants with criminal backgrounds. Gonzales is a member of the GOP-led House Homeland Security Committee.

“The data released by ICE is beyond disturbing, and it should be a wake-up call for the Biden-Harris administration and cities across the country that hide behind sanctuary policies,” Gonzales said Friday. “It’s time for Washington to move past rhetoric and toward results. Americans deserve to feel safe in their communities.

Read more here. 

Please use your platforms to show pics of missing kids. Go to National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. (NCMEC)

If you know of, hear or see anything, please call 911 and 1-800-THE-LOST.

Approximately 2300 children go missing every day. These children are counting on us.

Thank you.

Bellwether Research conducted a representative national survey of 1,007 parents with children in the K-12 age range who have access to a smartphone or tablet. The survey was conducted August 17 – 23, 2024.

The survey found that parents are very concerned that devices like tablets and smartphones pose a risk to children due to potential exposure to inappropriate content and unsafe interactions with peers, adults, and strangers online – and they shared the negative experiences their own children have had. Parents overwhelmingly want to see smartphone and tablet manufacturers and social media platforms invest more to protect children from harmful content, applications, and interactions on their devices.

Find out more about the HEAT INITIATIVE.

How emotional wellbeing impacts your children

Emotional wellbeing is the full range of emotions, behavior, ideas, and relationships of a person. Your emotional wellbeing is like your physical wellbeing, where the healthy side of the spectrum means your body and mind are working to perform the tasks and functions to keep you comfortable and able.

Emotional wellbeing impacts every aspect of a child’s life

Learning to take care of themselves and developing empathy is crucial to a child’s growth and education. Teaching children to recognize, manage, and express their emotions in a healthy way can positively affect their life.

When children recognize and communicate their feelings, their path to learning and developing the skills they need to succeed becomes much smoother.

Help your children by normalizing talking about emotions

When you talk to your children about their emotional wellbeing, you can help them develop a way to describe their feelings.

Talking about emotional wellbeing also teaches children that understanding and talking about their feelings is an important life skill.

If you can teach your children to talk about their feelings and emotions in a casual, non-intimidating way, you’ll make it easier for them to come to you when problems arise.

Be patient and vulnerable to encourage your children to talk

Sometimes, a child may struggle to talk about their feelings. But it doesn’t mean they don’t want to. Sometimes, children may have a hard time trusting and opening up to adults. Other times, they might feel a sense of loyalty to friends and not want to talk about a particular subject that involves them.

The best thing you can do is to gently and patiently create the space for them to talk to you. It might help to be open and talk about how certain situations can make you feel. Helping your child relate to you can help them trust and want to open up more.

Ask and listen to feedback from others

Pay attention to feedback from other people in your child’s life.

Check with trusted teachers, family members, and coaches. They see your child in contexts that you might not be as familiar with so they may have a different perspective.

Read more here. 

A grieving father has shared the despair he felt after learning the truth about a $13 substance his teenage son bought online.

Bruce Brown said the odorless, yellowish-white powder was delivered in a standard UPS package to his Colorado home in late November 2022, and was addressed to his 17-year-old son, Bennett, a competitive soccer player.

He thought it was just an athletic supplement, and texted his son that night asking what it was – but never received an answer, according to USA Today.

Read more here. 

On Tuesday, Instagram announced it was going to set teenager accounts to private by default. A recent sextortion case on the platform, one of many to have plagued Instagram over recent years, highlights why Meta has felt the need to lock down accounts owned by younger users.

A Virginia man was charged in May this year with carrying out a sextortion campaign over Instagram and Kik Messenger, using a real-life porn actress’ photos to trick as many as 60 victims into sharing nude images, previously-unreported court records show.

Gary Owens Jr. has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which allege he grabbed online photos of the porn star, who now lives in Florida, and convinced victims he was a real young teenage woman named Jessica Lincon who wanted to engage in a sexual relationship with them. The government did not say why Owens was doing it other than to trick victims into producing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) for him.

Read more here.