Q&A: Border Policies Put Kids in Harm’s Way

Q&A: Border Policies Put Kids in Harm's Way

With U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley

Q: What prompted your oversight of the Biden administration's handling of unaccompanied children who have arrived at the border alone?

A: During my annual 99 county meetings and when talking with constituents in Washington, Iowans have raised concerns about human trafficking. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), human trafficking is generally defined as the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. Simply put, human trafficking is a form of modern day slavery.

Under the Biden administration's watch, hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied alien children under the age of 18 have arrived at our southern border. Sadly, these kids are part of a vulnerable population, which put them at heightened risk for human trafficking and abuse by bad actors. These kids often take a harrowing journey against their will and arrive in a strange, new country without their parent or guardian to look out for their well-being. Meanwhile, criminal actors are all too eager to take advantage of these unaccompanied kids and the broken system intended to protect them. Upon arrival, most of these children are put in temporary federal care for intake and evaluation. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is responsible for caring for these kids through its Unaccompanied Children (UC) program.

Based on concerned feedback I've received from Iowans and my decade-long policy and oversight work in this area that started in the Obama administration and continued into the Trump administration, I doubled down on my oversight of the federal government's care for these kids. Thanks to the willingness and courage of whistleblowers who stepped forward to tell the truth, my oversight work has exposed abject failure by the Biden administration that's put innocent children into harm's way, including potential labor and sex trafficking situations.

Q: What did your oversight find?

A: Without a doubt, the Biden administration has done a grave disservice to these vulnerable young people. It's pretty obvious the Biden administration wanted to avoid the accusations of putting "kids in cages" that were leveled at the Trump administration. But by rushing to shuffle kids into unsafe homes and failing to thoroughly vet potential sponsors, the Biden administration is turning a blind eye to child endangerment and potential trafficking, according to whistleblowers. In the process, the Biden administration has allowed a dangerous human smuggling pipeline to emerge, putting children under the thumb of Mexican cartels and violent gangs to get into America.

While it's not always possible to reunite unaccompanied minors with parents or immediate family members, the UC program is supposed to move these young people out of federal care into safe homes with vetted sponsors in the U.S. while their immigration proceedings are pending.

Unfortunately, based on disclosures shared with me by whistleblowers, the Biden administration's UC program has potentially become a courier for human trafficking. That's why I referred this evidence of likely trafficking across the U.S. to the FBI and DHS in January.

Records I released even show HHS and one of its contractors knowingly placed two young children into a home with known relation to the violent MS-13 gang, despite being explicitly warned about the gang connections and threats of violence made by the sponsor. When this individual reported evidence that affiliates of the MS-13 gang were sponsoring children - instead of being thanked - HHS officials escorted her off the job.

In July, I convened a roundtable on Capitol Hill to hear directly from the whistleblowers who had reported this and other concerns to HHS in 2021. Transparency brings accountability. One of these whistleblowers framed what she saw in the UC program as "the most horrific injustices against children that I've witnessed in my federal career." Whistleblowers also made the key point that many sponsors are from other countries, and they often lack legal status in the U.S. So even if HHS conducts background checks, those checks won't reveal criminal history from other countries.

As a champion for whistleblowers, I know how difficult it is to go against the grain and stick one's neck out to report wrongdoing. I applaud whistleblowers for their public service. That's why I'm demanding HHS stop breaking the law by retaliating against people who report wrongdoing. In the meantime, I'll continue working to keep check on the executive branch, as well as the contractors and grantees paid by taxpayers to scrutinize potential sponsors. I'm also seeking justice for the exploited and missing children. Alarmingly, at least 85,000 unaccompanied minors who were placed with sponsors during the Biden administration are now missing because of this weak vetting. No matter how much stonewalling I get from the federal bureaucracy, I'll continue pressing for answers and leave no stone unturned to hold the government accountable and seek justice for the children who have suffered from this administration's willful failures.

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