The Biden administration’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) has been accused of failing to properly vet sponsors for unaccompanied minors crossing the border, leading to instances of human trafficking, according to whistleblowers who spoke to Senators on Tuesday.
Federal employee Deborah White revealed that children were trafficked due to inadequate vetting and government complicity, during a roundtable with Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).
White and her colleague Tara Rodas first identified a trafficking case in June 2021. Despite reporting it, children continued to be placed with unvetted sponsors. White described instances where children were sent to unsafe locations, including abandoned houses and non-existent addresses. In one case in Michigan, a child was sent to an open field after White reported hearing someone screaming for help.
White recounted facing resistance when she raised concerns about contractor failures, including being denied access to contracts. She developed training for incident reports on sexual abuse and trafficking to aid case managers. However, children were still placed in dangerous situations. She noted that ORR officials never met sponsors face-to-face and that fraudulent documents were widespread.
Rodas described ORR’s practice of unifying children with random people, often not their parents. She highlighted a case involving a 16-year-old Guatemalan girl whose sponsor, claiming to be her brother, was found to be exploiting her. The sponsor had social media accounts with child pornography, raising further concerns about the girl’s safety.
Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary Shevaun Harris expressed alarm that fewer than 10% of apprehended children are released to their parents, calling it “inhumane.” White testified that HHS ORR leadership dismissed concerns about document authenticity and emphasized reuniting children with sponsors over investigating them. Whistleblowers argued that ORR and its primary contractor, Cherokee Federal, ignored trafficking warnings to prevent overcrowding at the border. White criticized the program as a significant government failure, accusing ORR leadership and the contractor of allowing trafficking under their watch.
Sen. Bill Cassidy condemned the exploitation of children and called on Biden to secure the border and reform ORR.
