WASHINGTON, D.C. –– This week, House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN), Border Security and Enforcement Subcommittee Chairman Clay Higgins (R-LA), and Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability Subcommittee Chairman Dan Bishop (R-NC) sent a letter to Deputy Assistant Secretary Robin Dunn Marcos of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), investigating the release of unaccompanied alien children (UACs) to unvetted sponsors in the United States amid the historic Southwest border crisis.

The letter follows a recent DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) report that exposed serious gaps in the screening and management of UAC cases and revealed that in 22 percent of cases, ORR did not conduct prompt safety and well-being follow-up calls.

In the letter, the Chairmen request, in part, documents and information showing the denial rate for UAC sponsors, and the number of UACs placed with sponsors who have been charged with or convicted of any crime or investigated for the physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, or abandonment of a child. Read the full letter here and excerpts below.

Read more from Anna Giaritelli via Washington Examiner

In the letter, the Chairmen write,  “In February 2023, media reported that over 85,000 UACs processed by ORR in a two-year timeframe were unable to be contacted. Reported as “lost,” these youth represent a growing humanitarian crisis. From February 2021 through June 2024, over 500,000 UACs were encountered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection along the Southwest border. From October 2020 through June 2024, ORR released over 430,000 UACs to sponsors. As record numbers of UACs are encountered, media reported the correlating and devastating reality of child labor exploitation UACs are subjected to in the United States. The sheer number of UACs encountered and subsequently released to sponsors and the inability to contact these “lost” and severely vulnerable children, the Committee finds imperative to examine ORR’s screening capabilities for both children and sponsors.”
 
The Chairmen conclude,  “The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General released multiple reports highlighting the lack of thorough vetting of sponsors and failure to follow up with children placed with sponsors, and many concerns remain.”
 
Background: 
 
Last year, the Department of Labor revealed that nearly 6,000 children were victims of forced labor in the U.S. Under the Biden-Harris administration, CBP has encountered more than 500,000 UACs at our borders nationwide.
 
In a July 19, 2023, hearing on cartel control of the Southwest border, Jessica Vaughan, the director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, testified that roughly a quarter of trafficking victims are children, and that the Biden administration is failing to properly vet UACs or their sponsors in the United States. In a June 14 hearing, former Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf detailed how cartels have used Biden and Harris’ open-borders policies to smuggle children across the border, as well as how the Administration has lost track of 85,000 UACs released into the country by attempting to “facilitate the flow out of HHS facilities quicker and quicker,” regardless of concerns raised about sponsors.
 
An April 2021 report from the Washington Examiner quoted an official familiar with ICE’s testing procedures at the border as saying, “This administration wants these families and kids released quickly. That is their No. 1 goal, so they are not going to do anything to slow that process down.” According to a Florida grand jury investigation, “In one memorable instance, a federal employee was told by an ORR attorney to stop asking questions about potentially unsafe sponsors because doing so caused delay, and ‘[W]e only get sued for keeping them too long. We don’t get sued by traffickers. Are we clear?’” In some cases, the Biden-Harris administration has released dozens of UACs to the same sponsor. The administration sent more than 100 children to the same address in Austin, Texas, while other Texas addresses received 44 and 25 minors, respectively. One sponsor in Florida had multiple UACs sent to multiple addresses, and “he applied using different versions of his hyphenated surname.”
 
From May to September 2023, the Committee conducted transcribed interviews with eight chief patrol agents and one deputy chief patrol agent to acquire more information about operations in their sectors and how the crisis has impacted the safety and security of the United States. The agents testified that vulnerable alien children are being exploited by criminal cartels and human smugglers amid the ongoing historic humanitarian crisis, and how Biden and Harris’ reckless policies have only incentivized the abuse.
 
Sector chiefs told the Committee that not only has a lack of consequences for crossing the border illegally led to more children in danger at the border and in the interior, but the resulting influx has made it much more difficult for DHS to properly investigate and prevent abuse and trafficking––one of their most important missions in the field.

###