More than 65, 000 cases of problem that the Biden administration did not address, 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.
The Biden administration did not take those concerns into account because the HHS prioritized the prompt discharge of youngsters to donors in the wake of an ongoing border flood of children over the course of four decades.
Between 2021 and 2024, the 65, 000 cases that were flagged for adult release in the United States were never addressed, a problem that Grassley is pressing the Trump administration to completely investigate.
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 borders under the Biden administration, much exceeding the numbers of any other previous administrations.
Border Patrol agents first encountered kids at the border, 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 relieve the youngster to.
HHS employees and contractors identified a large number of cases as of concern as they interviewed babies and examined applications for older sponsors.
According to Grassley, of those 65, 000, 56, 591 cases, 7 346 of which were linked to human trafficking doubts, and 1, 688 of which were allegedly the result of child posing as a connected community member.
HHS has so far directed 528 leads to federal law enforcement for proper investigation. The U.S. Attorney’s office has prosecuted 36 cases, indicted seven people, detained 11, and found guilty three of them on several federal charges.
Although HHS claims there are 46, 311 understaffed cases however to work, Grassley wrote,” This is a wonderful first step in protecting these children.”
Grassley has led Senate studies into the abuse and neglect of immigrant kids who have crossed the border for the past ten years, starting with the alone small problems that occurred during the Obama administration in 2014.
Grassley drew interest to the subpar sponsorship processes used by HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement next time when applying to adopt children who had crossed the border without their parents.
Grassley’s office compared HHS company information that revealed instances where children were being assigned shady partners, such as those that suggested they were being trafficked, smuggled, and exploited, to HHS company data. HHS reporters provided those documents, which were then forwarded to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations.
” [W]histleblowers have confirmed that the issues my supervision identified in these records were at another HHS facilities, raising the possibility that the Biden administration may have put thousands of children in danger’s way across the country,” Grassley wrote in the email.
Grassley grew frustrated with the Biden administration because it refused to follow through on his monitoring requests and HHS warrants, citing that two-thirds of the requests were ignored.
After I made this urgent inquiry, HHS under Secretary [Xavier ] Becerra obstructed my investigation and advised contractors and donors to ignore my request and instead sent my inquiry to the Assistant Secretary for Legislation, who of course also omitted any requested information, Grassley wrote.
The Trump presidency has taken steps to rectify the situation and has worked its way through the hundreds of reviews to identify those that merit further investigation.
HOUSE GOP POSTS TO IMPOSE HARSH Punishments ON REPEAT BORDER CLOSERS
In February, it launched a campaign involving several national agencies to look into the issues raised and look for criminal investigative prospects.
In his notice, Grassley urged HHS to deliver frequently updated information on the Trump administration’s efforts to deal with the 65, 000 cases, as well as HHS’s role in and attention of any federal efforts to identify and stop human trafficking networks that target children.
