A new report claims that unaccompanied illegal immigrant children were sent by the Biden administration with unsafe U.S. guardians and sponsors who intended to use the children for criminal endeavors, including labor trafficking.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, government officials under President Joe Biden repeatedly ignored concerns by government employees regarding the placement of unaccompanied illegal immigrant children in potentially unsafe households.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the concerns were overlooked in an effort to avoid the negative appearance of too many illegal immigrants in crowded detainment centers at the southern border.
While the Department of Health and Human Services acknowledged that it was not adequately prepared to properly address the number of sponsor home requests, the department claimed that the program has been improved and that potential guardians are more thoroughly vetted.
In a statement to The Wall Street Journal, the department said, “Child welfare best-practices are clear that children belong with family and not in shelters.”
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According to The Wall Street Journal report, as many as 18,700 unaccompanied illegal immigrant children crossed the border each month in 2021. As a result, the Department of Health and Human Services established 14 makeshift shelters to provide temporary housing for the children. However, the report claimed that employees at the shelters were not properly trained in placing the children into safe homes.
“Following an internal investigation, the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversaw a network of shelters caring for unaccompanied minors, found gaps in the process to screen temporary guardians,” The Wall Street Journal’s report stated. “It said in February that 16% of records for children who were released to sponsors in March and April 2021 lacked evidence that a required safety check was conducted.”
The report claimed that in one case, an employee placed a child in a Florida home while noting, “It does not appear safe for the minor to be released to a home environment that was not fully assessed.” However, a government official later dismissed the concern according to documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
In another case, a 16-year-old boy from Guatemala was placed in the home of a man believed to be his uncle. The man had been charged with a felony for domestic violence just three months prior to the placement. While a Health and Human Services case coordinator initially denied the request to place the unaccompanied minor in the suspect’s home, the decision was overridden just days later. Additional records show that the 16-year-old was also not related to the man who reportedly claimed to be his uncle.
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