More than 65, 000 cases of problem that the Biden administration ignored, according to recently released documents, were flagged by government employees and contractors who cared for alone immigrant children in federal prison after they crossed the southwestern border.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA ) obtained documents from the Department of Health and Human Services ( HHS) that revealed a 65, 000 reports made by employees about children in custody or their parents who raised issues.
Given that the HHS prioritized the prompt discharge of children to partners in the wake of an ongoing border crossing of children every day for four years, those issues were never investigated by the Biden administration.
Between 2021 and 2024, Grassley is pressing the Trump administration to thoroughly research the 65, 000 cases that were flagged before kids were released to adults in the United States.
In a email sent to Trump’s HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on Tuesday, Grassley wrote,” Not a single child may continue to suffer because of the past government’s problems.”
More than 500,000 alone children crossed the U.S.-Mexico border under the Biden administration, much exceeding the numbers of any other previous administrations.
Border Patrol agents first encountered kids at the boundary, and they were later turned over to HHS, who maintains care settings that are more appropriate for children. Additionally, HHS is in charge of locating an American child to discharge the child.
HHS employees and contractors identified many scenarios as being of concern as they interviewed children and examined programs for adult sponsors.
According to Grassley, of those 65, 000, 56, 591 cases were flagged as causing concern, 7 346 on suspicion of human trafficking, and 1, 688 cases of suspected fraud involving an adult posing as a member of a distant family, 56, 591, according to Grassley.
HHS has so far directed 528 leads to federal law enforcement for formal investigation. The U.S. Attorney’s office has prosecuted 36 cases, indicted seven people, detained 11 people, and found guilty three of them on various federal charges.
Although HHS claims there are 46, 311 backlogged cases still to work, Grassley wrote,” This is a great first step in protecting these children.”
Starting with the unaccompanied minor crisis that occurred during the Obama administration in 2014, Grassley has led Senate investigations into the abuse and neglect of immigrant children who have crossed the border for the past ten years.
Grassley drew attention to the subpar sponsorship processes used by HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement last year when applying to adopt children who had crossed the border without their parents.
Grassley’s office compared HHS contractor records that revealed instances where children were being assigned shady sponsors, such as those that suggested they were being trafficked, smuggled, and exploited, to HHS contractor records. HHS whistleblowers provided those records, which were then forwarded to the Homeland Security Investigations Branch of the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.
” [W]histleblowers have confirmed that the issues my oversight identified in these records were at other HHS facilities, raising the possibility that the Biden administration may have put thousands of children in danger around the country,” Grassley wrote in the letter.
Grassley grew frustrated with the Biden administration because it refused to follow through on his oversight requests and HHS subpoenas, citing that two-thirds of the requests were ignored.
After I made my urgent inquiry, HHS under Secretary [Xavier ] Becerra obstructed my investigation and advised contractors and grantees to ignore my inquiry and instead sent it to the Assistant Secretary for Legislation, who of course also omitted any requested information, according to Grassley.
The Trump administration has taken steps to rectify the situation and has worked its way through the thousands of reports to identify those that warrant further investigation.
HOUSE GOP POSTS TO IMPOSE HARSH PENALTIES ON REPEAT BORDER CROSSERS
In February, it launched an initiative across a number of federal agencies to review the reported issues and look into criminal investigation leads.
In his letter, Grassley urged HHS to regularly update the administration with information on how to deal with the 65, 000 cases, as well as HHS’s involvement in and awareness of any government efforts to identify and stop child trafficking networks.
