(The Center Square)–Instead of ending a program through which federal officials have lost track of hundreds of thousands of “unaccompanied alien children” (UACs) who were illegally brought into the country, Congressional Republicans allocated billions of dollars to keep funding it.
According to federal law, the care of UACs falls under the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families. For years, under multiple administrations, federal and state investigations have found UACs are being abused through the program, including at ORR-contracted facilities nationwide.
Under the Biden administration, ORR placed UACs with unvetted sponsors, background checks weren’t performed, children were released to alleged gang members, human traffickers, non-family members and sent to non-residential addresses, federal inspector general audits and a Florida grand jury found.
Inspector general reports uncovered that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were “incapable of monitoring” UACs released into the U.S., expressing alarm because “missing children are ‘considered at higher risk for trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.’” ORR initially lost track of roughly 100,000 children, according to the reports. That number has since increased three-fold; UACs were being exploited in child labor situations, federal investigations found, and still are, most recently in Chicago, The Center Square reported.
Information about sexual abuse and physical neglect were so serious that U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-IA, filed criminal complaints that led to the Biden administration’s DOJ suing at least one NGO. Months later, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi dropped the charges.
She did so after investigations led by Grassley uncovered that UACs were being released to MS-13 gang members and sponsors who were allegedly putting them into forced labor, forced prostitution and sex-trafficking them.
Texas, California and Florida have historically received the most UACs; the number exponentially increased every year under the Biden administration, The Center Square first reported.
From fiscal years 2019 to 2023, ICE transferred more than 448,000 UACs to ORR. During that time, ICE didn’t issue notices to appear before an immigration judge for 65% of UACs transferred from DHS custody, leaving them in limbo, an inspector general report found, The Center Square reported.
Despite years of federal reports highlighting DHS, ICE, HHS and ORR failures to care for UACs, Congress extended funding for UAC oversight in HR 1, the budget bill referred to as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
HR 1, filed by state Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, allocates more than $3 billion for UAC oversight for fiscal year 2025 through Sept. 30, 2029.
Under Part 2, Use of Funds, Sect. 70115, it appropriates $3 billion to ORR “to house, transport, and supervise unaccompanied alien children” in ORR custody pursuant to section 235 of the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008.
Sec. 70116 appropriates $20 million to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for CBP officers, including Border Patrol, to examine UACs ages 12 and older for gang-related tattoos and other gang-related markings.
Sec. 70117 allocates $20 million to HHS to determine if UACs ages 12 or older pose “a danger to self or others” by examining them for gang-related tattoos and other gang-related markings.
Sec. 70118 allocates $50 million to ORR to screen potential UAC sponsors. It directs the HHS secretary to provide the Homeland Security secretary with information about the sponsor, including “the name of the individual and all adult residents of the individual’s household” and each of their Social Security numbers and birthdays. It also requires the sponsor’s residence to be validated and their immigration status and contact information to be confirmed and shared.
It also requires “the results of all background and criminal records checks for the individual and all adult residents of the individual’s household, which shall include at a minimum an investigation of the public records sex offender registry, a public records background check, and a national criminal history check based on fingerprints” be shared between agencies.
Sec. 70119 appropriates $100 million “to permit a specified unaccompanied alien child to withdraw the child’s application for admission pursuant to section 235(a)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act” to be repatriated to their country of origin on a case-by-case basis. The section only applies to UACs encountered at ports of entry – not between ports of entry – who immigration officials deem inadmissible.
Repatriation doesn’t apply if officials determine the UACs are victims of severe forms of human trafficking; face being trafficked once returned, or express “a credible fear of persecution” if returned to their country of origin.
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