HHS data: Over 11,000 migrant children placed with unvetted sponsors under Biden administration
- Between 2021 and 2025, over 11,000 unaccompanied migrant children were placed with sponsors who were neither parents nor legal guardians and were not subjected to required FBI fingerprint background checks, violating federal law.
- The administration failed to conduct mandated home studies for over 79,000 children under 12, including nearly 2,000 cases where such reviews were explicitly recommended due to safety concerns.
- HHS cared for nearly 490,000 unaccompanied migrant children from late 2020 through mid-2025, with most children arriving at the southern border and placed through the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
- Grassley convened a whistleblower roundtable revealing abuse, mismanagement and internal suppression of safety concerns. Democrats did not attend and blocked two of Grassley’s reform bills aimed at protecting children from exploitation.
- Grassley’s decade-long oversight efforts were validated by a DHS Inspector General report confirming widespread failures, including the administration’s loss of contact with hundreds of thousands of migrant children and the mishandling of over 65,000 incident reports, including 7,300 involving human trafficking.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has revealed the “systematic failures” in the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of unaccompanied migrant children following the release of newly obtained data from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
According to the HHS data, between January 2021 and January 2025, more than 11,000 migrant children were placed with unvetted sponsors – individuals who were neither the child’s parent nor legal guardian and who were not fingerprinted or subjected to background checks. (Related: HHS launches investigation into ORR’s handling of unaccompanied migrant children.)
Per federal law, specifically 8 U.S. Code § 1232(c)(3)(A), all non-parent, non-guardian sponsors must undergo a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) criminal background check using digital fingerprints. However, the HHS data revealed that the administration disregarded this requirement in over 11 percent of such cases.
The HHS data also reveals that during the said period, the administration failed to conduct required home studies for 79,143 migrant children under the age of 12. Home studies are mandated by HHS regulations when a young child is to be placed with a non-parent or non-guardian sponsor, especially in cases where red flags are raised. Notably, 1,961 of those children were placed in homes where a home study was specifically recommended, yet no follow-up was conducted.
From October 2020 to September 2024, HHS was responsible for the care of 468,736 unaccompanied migrant children, and has cared for an additional 21,399 children from October 2024 through June 2025. The vast majority of these minors are apprehended at the southern U.S. border and transferred to the custody of HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) for placement with sponsors.
In line with the report, Grassley commented, “My oversight continues to expose disturbing evidence that the Biden-Harris administration turned a blind eye to tens of thousands of kids who needed proper supervision and care. It’s appalling to prioritize speed and optics over the safety and well-being of children. I appreciate the Trump administration’s efforts to undo the damage caused by the last administration’s failed border policies, and I’ll continue my oversight of the issue to ensure abuse like this never happens again.”
Lax sponsor screening procedures lead to abusive situations
Grassley has spent over a decade advocating for stronger protections for unaccompanied migrant children, warning of the dangers posed by insufficient vetting, weak oversight and siloed inter-agency communication. His efforts intensified during the last Congress as the number of unaccompanied children entering the U.S. surged.
In that period, Grassley repeatedly warned that the Biden-Harris administration’s inadequate safeguards and lax sponsor screening procedures allowed thousands of vulnerable children to fall through the cracks, with some reportedly ending up in exploitative or abusive situations.
According to Brighteon.AI’s Enoch, Grassley convened a whistleblower roundtable last Congress to allow frontline HHS and contractor employees to speak out about abuse and mismanagement in the Unaccompanied Children (UC) program. The roundtable revealed troubling accounts of neglected complaints, abusive sponsors and internal pressure to suppress concerns about child safety.
But despite the gravity of the testimonies, Democrats on the Judiciary Committee declined to attend the roundtable and opposed two key legislative reforms championed by Grassley – a bill to overturn a Biden-era rule that enabled the release of children to unvetted or inappropriate sponsors and another bill sought to cut off federal funding to contractors and facilities that had been implicated in facilitating or failing to prevent sexual abuse against migrant minors. Both measures were blocked, leaving “a dangerous status quo” in place.
Visit Migrants.news for similar stories about unaccompanied migrant children.
Watch this video of Alex Jones’ interview with Anthony J. Rubin discussing the massive government-sponsored kidnapping and trafficking of unaccompanied migrant children.
This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com.
More related stories:
Illegals pose as migrant children to get expedited access across U.S. border.
Trump administration locates nearly 80,000 missing migrant children, exposing failures of Biden-era policies.
Investigative journalist: Over 85,000 unaccompanied migrant children trafficked into the U.S. have been KIDNAPPED.
Leaked government document reveals migrant children are being held illegally in Border Patrol facilities.
DHS report: ICE has failed to track down location of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children.
Sources include:
YourNews.com
Judiciary.senate.gov
Brighteon.AI
Brighteon.com
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