The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) uncovered widespread abuse and exploitation among unaccompanied migrant children placed with sponsors.
Earlier this year, DHS and partner entities launched a welfare effort to verify the safety of at-risk children. The initiative led to the discovery of sponsors possessing child sex abuse materials, forced child labor, neglect, as well as children being placed with sponsors with criminal records.
“In some of the most disturbing cases, girls were pregnant with children fathered by their alleged sponsors — which highlights the grave failures of previous vetting procedures and the dangerous consequences of placing minors in unsafe environments,” ICE stated.
“Children’s safety and security is non-negotiable,” said ICE spokesperson Laszlo Baksay. “The previous administration’s failure to implement meaningful safeguards has allowed vulnerable kids to fall into the hands of criminals. Our special agents are working tirelessly to locate these alien children, ensure their protection, and hold accountable those who have abused the system.”
“Our agents are doing what should’ve been done all along: protecting children, not pushing them into the shadows,” Baksay added. “This is the responsibility of any government, Republican or Democrat, but it was the Trump administration that insisted on rigorous sponsor screening and biometric verification. Those guardrails were dismantled, and we’re now seeing the consequences.”
While welfare checks are not the primary activity of ICE operations, if agents or officers “encounter individuals who are in the United States illegally, they take them into custody and process them for removal in accordance with federal immigration law,” the news release added. “Likewise, unaccompanied children in the U.S. illegally are transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s custody.”
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) previously accused the Biden administration of failing to investigate more than 65,000 abuse reports surrounding migrant children.
