Special Report: OIG reports detail how the Biden administration helped facilitate child trafficking 

by Deported.news Staff | June 15, 2026

Federal officials announced last week that the Trump administration has located 146,000 of 475,000 Unaccompanied Alien Children that were smuggled into the United States, handed over to unvetted sponsors, and lost due to Biden-era rules.

The update comes amid government audits and reports, detailing how the Biden administration’s relaxed sponsor vetting requirements, and serious failures in post-placement oversight resulted in 323,000 children being flagged as missing and at risk for exploitation.

Those rule changes, including Field Guidance 10 and 11, also altered how 475,000 children were processed, while preventing communication between the Office of Refugee Resettlement and DHS—making tracking after placement nearly impossible.

“ORR removed reference to “past and present immigration status,” since that information will no longer be collected in the Family Reunification application,” reads one of the Biden-era rule changes.

According to John Fabbricatore, a former Senior HHS advisor, the rule changes made it possible to hand over children – some of which reported being raped 600 times – to illegal alien sponsors, child sex traffickers, and cartel members.

“The Biden administration only used DNA testing 300 times in 2.7 million cases,” Fabbricatore explained during a Heritage speaker event. “And out of those 300 DNA cases, 15% they found out were fraudulent.” Adding: “They knew that 15% of those 300 cases had no familial connection, and they stopped doing DNA testing.”

Fabbrtatore went on to explain that the children should not have been counted as UACs given that their family could not be verified as being in the United States. He continued by sharing that 80% of the UACs were over 14-years-old and male, and that 254,000 sponsors had supplied fake or fraudulent Identification.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche laid out the human cost during Thursday’s joint press conference.

“More than 475,000 unaccompanied children entered the United States during the Biden administration. Over 300,000 could not be accounted for at the end of 2024,” Blanche stated. “The way this happened is typically because of criminals calling themselves sponsors, trafficking these children to the border, usually committing fraud to do so, and oftentimes the children were abused, assaulted, and certainly exploited.”

Blanche, describing “super sponsors” as an adult non-relative who had taken custody of three or more children, said the Biden administration accepted fake identification from 15,500 super sponsors.

He also announced that three Guatemalan super sponsors are now under indictment, including one woman who trafficked over 40 children for slave labor.

The vetting issues extended to shelter facilities, many of which were unregistered or not licensed to operate. Due to actions taken by the state of Florida and Texas in 2021, however, evidence of documented child abuse was compiled and turned over to the HHS Office of Inspector General.

That report, released Wednesday, found that between September 2021 and August 2024, the Office of Refugee Resettlement had only completed 176 of 256 required monitoring visits across 58 unlicensed

shelters. Due to the nature of these pop-up sites – authorized and funded by the Biden administration – staff did not receive full criminal background checks, or FBI fingerprint reviews. During COVID-19 lockdowns, in-person checks were halted altogether.

By August of 2024, the Biden administration was alerted that 323,000 of 448,000 children had gone missing after being transferred into HHS custody.

In response to alerts, the Biden administration increased the dollar amount for government benefits, while providing automatic deportation protection for any child “coached” to request a Special Immigrant Juvenile visa. While a hotline exists to monitor calls of concern, Biden’s ORR – after weakening background check requirements – “failed to implement a mechanism for tracking children post placement with a sponsor.”

That online portal received over 65,000 recorded calls of concern for sexual abuse, violence and child labor. Yet, when pressed, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra denied legal responsibility for protecting unaccompanied alien children from abuse and trafficking after placement with a sponsor.

Though the HHS OIG at the time issued a scathing report, recommending that the administration immediately implement DNA testing, background checks, and check FBI fingerprints against the child abuse registry, none of these actions were taken.

Instead, the administration continued its policy of releasing children within nine days, as calls of concern went unanswered, according to Congressional testimony. 

Starting in early 2025, the Trump administration drastically expanded Joint Task Force Alpha, to locate the children, and prosecute traffickers. Democrats, NGOs, and radical anti-ICE activists have fought back every step of the way.

While HHS, under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, has passed new rule changes to mandate a much stricter verification process, DNA testing, digital fingerprinting, and timely wellness checks, Democrats and various NGOs immediately sued to overturn them.

Sanctuary policies, which block civil enforcement, are further complicated by gaps between civil and criminal law that significantly hinder the prosecution of smugglers and traffickers—often referred to as “non-criminals.”

During the press conference, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin called the situation negligent at best, criminal at worst.

“We’re investigating reports, to where some of these kids claim that they were raped between 6 to 700 times.”

Emphasizing that most of the children have been found in sanctuary cities, Mullin called out partisan obstruction from mayors like Mamdani. “As the mayor, he knows what is happening on his own streets. He knows who he is harboring and at this point, abetting.”

Mullin continued by vowing to rescue as many kids as possible.

“As a father of six with three young girls, I’ll do whatever I have to do. I will move heaven and hell to go find these kids,” Mullin said.

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