EXCLUSIVE: 'I consider it human trafficking.' California foster parents are being asked to take in '26 or more' migrant children as social services scramble to place a 'record number' of unaccompanied minors crossing the border

  • Foster parents Travis and Sharla Kall received a voicemail from the Community Care Licensing Division asking how many available beds they have for unaccompanied migrant youths 
  • 'Usually the maximum amount of children you are allowed to foster at any one time is six,' Travis told DailyMail.com
  • The couple are currently fostering two four-month-old twins while also caring for their six-year-old biological twins
  • The CCLD  said in an email they are 'trying to address the needs of a record number of unaccompanied children who are arriving from Central America'
  • The organization said the migrant children 'are escaping impossible situations such as poverty, violence and natural disasters'
  • Travis, who along with his wife runs a non-profit fighting against human trafficking in California, believes this is just the tip of a sinister iceberg

California foster parents are being asked to care for a staggering 26 or more unaccompanied migrant children per household, DailyMail.com can reveal.  

On March 12, foster parents Travis, 45, and Sharla Kall received a voicemail amid the crisis at the Mexico border. 

'This is an emergency message, please respond to this urgent message from the Community Care Licensing Division (CCLD),' the voicemail obtained by DailyMail.com said. 'CCLD would like to know how many available beds you have to serve additional youth.'

CCLD is a division of California's Department of Social Services that oversees foster home and care licensing.

The couple received an email with the same urgent message, containing links for them to communicate how many available beds they have - ranging from zero to '26 +.'

Foster parents Travis and Sharla Kall received a voicemail from the Community Care Licensing Division asking how many available beds they have for youth

Foster parents Travis and Sharla Kall received a voicemail from the Community Care Licensing Division asking how many available beds they have for youth

Disturbing images have shown the cramped conditions inside a migrant 'overflow' tent in Texas where one lawmaker says 400 unaccompanied male minors are being held in 'terrible conditions' in a space meant for half as many

'Usually the maximum amount of children you are allowed to foster at any one time is six,' said Travis, who currently fosters two four-month-old twins with his wife, while also caring for their biological twins, aged six.

'We called our case worker and she told us that everyone was calling her because they had got that same call,' said the small automotive business owner from Orange, California.

'She said there was a big influx of children coming in, but she didn't know where from,' he added. 

The couple reached out to a friend who is fostering through a different agency and were told that she had received the same call. The friend also told them her agency confirmed via email that the children were coming from the border.

'As many of you are already aware, CCLD has been sending automated emails and phone calls asking you about available beds to serve additional youth,' the email read.

'They are trying to address the needs of a record number of unaccompanied children who are arriving from Central America who are escaping impossible situations such as poverty, violence and natural disasters,' it adds. 

The couple were shocked that the request was being made.

'At any given point in time there are 30,000 plus children in the L.A. County foster care system alone,' Sharla said.

'So to ask us already certified foster parents to take on children from another country when we can barely take care of our own foster crisis doesn't seem beneficial to either side because either way someone loses a bed,' she added. 

Travis, who along with his wife runs a non-profit fighting against human trafficking, believes this is just the tip of a sinister iceberg.

'I consider it human trafficking,' he said. 'It's not the burden of taking kids in because we have the heart for it, but these are kids that were taken from the border for a money scheme and now they're going to use us resource parents to take care of them.'

The CCLD said in an email they are 'trying to address the needs of a record number of unaccompanied children who are arriving from Central America'

The CCLD said in an email they are 'trying to address the needs of a record number of unaccompanied children who are arriving from Central America'

On March 12, the Kalls received a voicemail from an unknown number and then this email asking if parents have bed capacity for 26 or more

On March 12, the Kalls received a voicemail from an unknown number and then this email asking if parents have bed capacity for 26 or more 

DailyMail.com reported this week that cartels are using President Biden's lax border policies to run multi-million dollar human trafficking schemes.

'The cartels have realized that under Biden there is serious money to be made from people trafficking without any of the distribution issues you face with narcotics,' a source said. 'People are the new dope.'

In a request for comment, the California Department of Social Service said: 'In the case of unaccompanied minor children who cross the border, responsibility for their care falls under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

'Should any unaccompanied minors in this situation be placed by the federal government in licensed children's residential facilities or homes in California, our role at CDSS is to ensure licensed facilities meet California's health and safety standards.

'In response to a request from HHS for an expedited effort to determine which licensed facilities may be willing to assist, CDSS sent out a survey to licensed homes.'

The pictures, released by Congressman Henry Cuellar, show inside the U.S. Customs and Border Protection temporary overflow facility in Donna over the weekend

The pictures, released by Congressman Henry Cuellar, show inside the U.S. Customs and Border Protection temporary overflow facility in Donna over the weekend 

Red Cross volunteers watch over each individual trailer of the young men 24-hours a day, while federal police patrol the outside of the detention facility in Texas

Red Cross volunteers watch over each individual trailer of the young men 24-hours a day, while federal police patrol the outside of the detention facility in Texas

U.S. officials have rushed to open new sites to hold teenagers and children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to try to clear packed Border Patrol facilities currently holding thousands of youths - many claiming to be in their late teens, but whose exact ages are difficult to verify.

Biden has kept intact an emergency measure enacted by the Trump administration during the pandemic that allows the government to quickly expel them to Mexico, though adults who bring young children are generally allowed to enter through South Texas.

The Biden administration is not expelling immigrant children unaccompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Several hundred a day are crossing the border, going first to often packed Border Patrol stations while they await placement in the HHS system.

The number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border illegally has surged. CBP Chief Gloria Chavez of the El Paso Sector said that illegal crossings by unaccompanied minors were up 96 percent in the sector for January and February compared to the same period last year.

A similar surge occurred in 2014, following executive action from the Obama administration protecting so-called 'DREAMers' who arrived in the country illegally as children. Congress is now considering a bill granting citizenship to DREAMers.

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