The Alarming Disappearance of Migrant Children: A Crisis Under the Biden-Harris Administration

Edited by: TJVNews.com

A startling new report has surfaced, revealing that the Biden-Harris administration has lost track of more than 320,000 migrant children who entered the United States unaccompanied. According to a recently published report on the Matzav.com web site, these vulnerable children, released to so-called “qualified sponsors” within the country, are now at significant risk of falling prey to human trafficking, forced labor, and other forms of exploitation. The revelations, highlighted in a Homeland Security Inspector General’s report, shed light on a growing crisis with severe humanitarian and legal implications.

Where are 300,000 Missing Migrant Children? pic.twitter.com/x3Pi8mImWJ

— Big Cas (@bigcas910) August 23, 2024

According to the report, as of May 2024, approximately 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children have been released into the United States without being assigned a date to appear in immigration court. This lack of follow-up means that their whereabouts have become untraceable, leaving them exposed to potential dangers. Additionally, another 32,000 children, who were given court dates, failed to appear further compounding the issue.

This crisis, which spans the period from October 2018 to September 2023, underscores the systemic failures within the U.S. immigration system, particularly in the handling of vulnerable children. Matzav.com reported that the situation has drawn sharp criticism from various quarters, including federal whistleblowers and child welfare advocates, who warn of the grave risks these children face.

Tara Rodas, a federal government employee hired in 2021 to assist the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with the influx of migrant children, has come forward with alarming allegations. The Matzav.com report indicated that Rodas believed she was contributing to a noble cause by helping to reunite children with sponsors in the U.S. However, she soon realized that she was, in fact, facilitating the transfer of these children into potentially dangerous situations.

Rodas expressed horror upon discovering that many of the children she helped place were being handed over to “traffickers, members of transnational criminal organizations, bad actors, bad, bad, bad people,” as was indicated in the Matzav.com report. Her testimony paints a bleak picture of a broken system where the safety of vulnerable children has been compromised in favor of expediency and bureaucratic inefficiency.

“There’s no way they had the capacity to keep track of these kids, and they knew it” @KenPaxtonTX explains how The White House mishandled the hundreds of thousands of missing migrant children. #DanaRadio

Podcast: https://t.co/2WFEysYXHh pic.twitter.com/ZHofDEzrao

— The Dana Show (@DanaLoeschRadio) August 22, 2024

One particularly harrowing case she described involved a 16-year-old migrant girl placed with a sponsor who claimed to be her older brother. However, it quickly became evident that the man was not related to the girl. “He was touching her inappropriately. It was clear her sponsor was not her brother,” Rodas revealed, according to the Matzav.com report, adding that the girl appeared “drugged” and as though “she was for sale” based on disturbing social media posts by the sponsor.

This case is not an isolated incident. Rodas identified that in some instances, non-family sponsors have been found to be hosting multiple children released by HHS—an arrangement she flagged as a “red flag” for potential exploitation. In 2023 alone, NBC News reported that 344 unaccompanied migrant children were living with non-family sponsors who were housing at least three other migrant children, as per the information provided in the Matzav.com report.  Such situations raise significant concerns about the children’s safety and well-being.

The process of connecting unaccompanied children with sponsors in the U.S. is deeply flawed, as highlighted by the report and whistleblower accounts. When migrant children are apprehended by border agents, they are transferred to the custody of HHS, which is responsible for finding them a sponsor. However, the vetting process for these sponsors is alarmingly lax.

According to Rodas, sponsors do not need to be related to the children they are taking in, and the vetting process often lacks rigor. In many cases, HHS officials never meet the sponsors in person, conducting vetting procedures over the phone instead. The Matzav.com report also said that this hands-off approach, which Rodas claims was further stripped down at the beginning of the Biden administration, has opened the door to widespread abuse and exploitation.

The issue of unaccompanied migrant children being placed with unsuitable sponsors is not new. Dr. Jason Piccolo, a retired federal agent, has been sounding the alarm on this issue since 2015, when he exposed the government’s practice of releasing unaccompanied children to potential criminals, as was indicated in the Matzav.com report. Piccolo described the latest findings as “deeply concerning,”as he emphasized that these children, already vulnerable, are being placed in harm’s way due to systemic negligence.

Thousands of migrant children are missing under Kamala Harris’s watch pic.twitter.com/LenYA4slZC

— D. Scott @eclipsethis2003 (@eclipsethis2003) August 22, 2024

Reports have surfaced indicating that some of these children are being forced to work in exploitative conditions in slaughterhouses and factories across the U.S. The idea that children, who should be protected and cared for, are instead being subjected to such harsh realities is nothing short of tragic.

“There needs to be an immediate standard operating procedure put in place to track the status and whereabouts of every single unaccompanied migrant child across all involved agencies,” Piccolo urged, emphasizing the critical need for comprehensive oversight. “One child lost to trafficking is one too many. This systemic failure demands immediate attention and reform to ensure the safety of all children in our care.”

The failure to adequately vet both the sponsors and the children themselves is at the core of this crisis. The Matzav.com report said that according to Rodas, the current system lacks rigorous checks, allowing adults to falsely claim to be minors and sponsors to take in multiple children without sufficient scrutiny. This lack of thorough vetting has enabled unscrupulous individuals to exploit the system, with disastrous consequences for the children involved.

“It’s fraud on the part of the adult who’s pretending to be the unaccompanied child, but it’s also fraud on the part of the sponsor attempting to sponsor them. This is very serious,” Rodas emphasized. Over a span of less than six months, she witnessed numerous cases where the system failed to protect these vulnerable children, exposing them to significant risks.

The government watchdog report paints a bleak picture of the current state of the U.S. immigration system, particularly within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). As was pointed out in the Matzav.com report, of the eight ICE offices audited, only one had made any effort to locate missing migrant children who had been released to sponsors. This lack of diligence reflects a broader issue within DHS, where, according to Rodas, “Nobody at DHS is actually looking.”

Where are the 300k missing migrant children Comrade Kamala You are the border czar Ooops I forgot you said you weren’t @KamalaHarris @KamalaHQ #ComradeKamala pic.twitter.com/CNZK6gazNz

— Rebel (@lucyndesi01) August 22, 2024

The implications of this neglect are profound. Without proper tracking and follow-up, thousands of children remain unaccounted for, many of whom may be at risk of exploitation, abuse, or worse. The failure to actively search for these missing children represents a significant breach of duty by the agencies tasked with their care and protection.

The consequences of this systemic neglect became tragically apparent in the case of Kayla Hamilton, a 20-year-old autistic woman who was brutally raped and murdered in Maryland in July 2022. Her alleged killer was a member of the notorious MS-13 gang, who had been released into the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor, the report on Matzav.com said. The circumstances leading to Hamilton’s death reveal a cascade of failures on the part of federal authorities.

Hamilton’s mother, Tammy Nobles, has been vocal about the failures that led to her daughter’s death, accusing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) of “operational neglect.” Nobles testified before Congress in January, detailing how federal authorities failed to properly vet the alleged killer, the report added.  At the border, officials neglected to check for gang tattoos or contact law enforcement in his home country of El Salvador, which could have revealed his criminal history and affiliation with MS-13.

Nobles’ testimony calls attention to the dire consequences of these oversights. “Had they done so, El Salvador government officials would have confirmed that the assailant was a known MS-13 gang member with a prior criminal history,” she testified, as was indicated in the Matzav.com report. This crucial failure in background checks allowed a dangerous individual to enter the U.S. and ultimately led to the tragic death of her daughter.

The failures did not end at the border. Once in the U.S., HHS employees “neglected and recklessly failed to verify a legitimate family member of the assailant or sponsor before allowing him to enter U.S. soil,” Nobles stated. Instead, the MS-13 gang member, still a minor, was allowed to rent a room in a trailer park from another individual who was also an illegal immigrant.

This pattern of neglect highlights significant flaws in the vetting and placement process for unaccompanied migrant children. The lack of thorough background checks, combined with inadequate verification of sponsors, has created a situation where vulnerable minors can easily fall into the hands of dangerous individuals or criminal networks. This systemic failure not only jeopardizes the safety of the children but also poses a significant threat to public safety, as evidenced by the case of Kayla Hamilton.

The disappearance of more than 320,000 migrant children under the Biden-Harris administration represents a grave humanitarian crisis and a failure of governmental oversight. These children, many of whom now face the risk of trafficking and exploitation, are victims of a deeply flawed system that has failed to protect them. As calls for reform and accountability grow louder, the administration must take urgent steps to rectify this situation and ensure that such a tragedy never happens again. The safety and future of these children depend on it.