Washington, Feb 22 (EFE). – The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) puts at risk the safety of thousands of Central American youngsters who cross the southern border into the U.S. while they wait for immigration court authorities to rule on their cases, according to an official study released Monday in Washington.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), which wrote the report, determined in its analysis that the ORR was not initially prepared to provide care for all the unaccompanied minors arriving in this country, and, despite expanding its bed capacity, its deficiencies in keeping track of the kids through proper documentation does not guarantee their rights or their safety.

The GAO found that the documentation of many minors in the jurisdiction of the ORR, a branch of Health and Human Services (HHS) was incomplete, “making it difficult to verify that all required services were provided.”

“ORR revised its on-site monitoring program in 2014 to ensure better coverage of grantees. However, ORR was not able to complete all the visits it planned for fiscal years 2014 and 2015, citing lack of resources,” the report said.

“By not monitoring its grantees consistently, ORR may not be able to identify areas where children’s care is not provided in accordance with ORR policies and the agreements with grantees,” it said.

Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Orrin Hatch of Utah and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma asked the GAO to prepare this report last October.

“Based on the findings in this report, it’s no wonder that we are hearing of children being mistreated or simply falling off the grid once they are turned over to sponsors,” Grassley, head of the Senate Judicial Committee, said Monday.

“The Obama administration isn’t adequately monitoring the grantees or sponsors whom we are entrusting to provide basic care for unaccompanied children,” Grassley said.

The ORR offers refuge for unaccompanied youngsters fleeing from Central American violence and places thousands of them in communities while they await immigration court decisions.

Since 2011, more than 125,000 unaccompanied minors coming mainly from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador have been apprehended after crossing the border from Mexico into the United States. EFE