Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, asserted that the Biden administration ignored or dismissed more than 65,000 reports of unaccompanied migrant children at risk or in potential danger, including more than 7,300 reports of human trafficking.
Under former President Joe Biden’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), “thousands of children may have been placed in harm’s way nationwide,” Grassley wrote in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday.
Grassley is working with the Trump administration to get through a backlog of 65,605 reports of concern for unaccompanied alien children (UAC), he wrote in a release on Thursday. Those include:
- 56,591 notifications of concern
- 7,346 reports of human trafficking
- 1,688 fraud leads
In the release, Grassley said the Trump administration has processed more than 28% of the backlog, which so far has netted seven indictments, 11 arrests and three convictions. Another 36 investigations have been accepted for prosecution by U.S. attorneys, he wrote.
At issue is that Biden’s ORR placed UACs with more than 100 sponsors that were poorly vetted and warranted investigation by the FBI or Homeland Security Investigations.
“My oversight exposed the Biden-Harris administration for placing unaccompanied migrant children with dangerous sponsors and actively obstructing law enforcement and Congress’ efforts to rescue vulnerable kids. I applaud the Trump administration for its swift action to protect unaccompanied migrant children by addressing the concerning reports the Biden-Harris administration shelved,” Grassley said in the statement.
In the letter, Grassley asked Kennedy for “immediate update on governmentwide efforts to find and rescue children who were placed in harm’s way.” HHS still has 46,311 backlogged cases to work through, Grassley said in the letter.
Further, Grassley also asked Kennedy to provide an update on steps his HHS has taken to remedy findings from an inspector general’s report that in addition to failing to properly vet 100-plus sponsors, Biden’s ORR failed “to provide necessary information to law enforcement at DHS to help them find and protect children.”
“The purpose of my inquiry is clear: to determine the scope and severity of child trafficking and exploitation through the UAC program nationwide. After I made this urgent inquiry, HHS under Secretary [Xavier] Becerra obstructed my investigation and instructed contractors and grantees not to answer, and to instead send my inquiry to the Assistant Secretary for Legislation, who of course also failed to provide any requested information,” Grassley wrote to Kennedy.
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