The Biden administration’s border fiasco had many disastrous consequences, but one of the most damning is the sexual trafficking and sexual assault of young kids and unaccompanied minors.
The Department of Homeland Security has uncovered widespread abuse and exploitation of unaccompanied minors placed with improperly vetted sponsors, according to a news release from DHS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Last August, a DHS Inspector General Report revealed that President Biden’s DHS had lost track of more than 320,000 unaccompanied migrant children who crossed the border into the United States, putting these children “at risk of sex trafficking, forced labor and other forms of exploitation.”
Some of the most disturbing cases found girls were pregnant with children fathered by their alleged sponsors, which “highlights the grave failures of previous vetting procedures and the dangerous consequences of placing minors in unsafe environments,” the news release states.
No one seems to know how many unaccompanied minors were being released to “sponsors” every month—some estimates say 5,000—during the Biden border invasion. However, what is clear is federal agencies did not properly vet the sponsors or keep tabs on the unaccompanied children.
To qualify as a sponsor, they identified themselves with a texted image of their driver’s license or, in at least one case, someone else’s. Some children were impregnated by their sponsors; in other cases, children were sent to live with sponsors with serious criminal records or with child pornography.
A recent case in Florida involved the sexual assault of a teenage girl who was sent to live in the home of several people, including Wilson Manfredo Lopez-Carillo, who was charged May 22 with three counts of sexual assault on a minor, DailyWire.com reported in a special investigation.
In February 2025, the Department of Homeland Security and its federal and state partners launched a national child welfare initiative to locate and verify these at-risk kids’ safety.
“Children’s safety and security is nonnegotiable,” said ICE spokesperson Laszlo Baksay in the release. “The previous administration’s failure to implement meaningful safeguards has allowed vulnerable kids to fall into the hands of criminals. Our special agents are working tirelessly to locate these alien children, ensure their protection, and hold accountable those who have abused the system.”
The DHS investigation uncovered alarming instances of abuse and exploitation, including sponsors:
- In possession of child sexual abuse material
- Who had forced minors into labor
- With living conditions that constituted neglect.
- With criminal records, including aggravated assault, larceny, counterfeiting, drug trafficking, prostitution and even attempted murder
“Our agents are doing what should’ve been done all along: protecting children, not pushing them into the shadows,” Baksay said. “This is the responsibility of any government, Republican or Democrat, but it was the Trump administration that insisted on rigorous sponsor screening and biometric verification. Those guardrails were dismantled, and we’re now seeing the consequences.”
These unaccompanied minors are extremely vulnerable to exploitation and abuse because they are underage, don’t speak English and enter a foreign country without a parent. They endure trauma and violence and are at greater risk becoming child sex or labor trafficking victims, according to a 2020 report U.S. Government Accountability Office.
According to ICE, Homeland Security Investigations, a division of ICE, has been trying to perform welfare checks to determine if the unaccompanied minors are in dangerous homes and ensure their whereabouts and well-being.
The visits assess whether children are receiving appropriate care, attending school, complying with immigration proceedings, and — most critically — not being trafficked, exploited or abused.
But in true leftist fashion, Democrats, including Sen. Adam Schiff, have pulled out the stops to resist these checks, alleging it’s a veiled attempt to deport illegal immigrants and unaccompanied minors.
Although Democrats and news outlets try to downplay this crisis, these unaccompanied minors have endured trauma, victimization and horrendous abuse at the hands of these unvetted guardians.
“Media outlets should focus less on political spin and more on the facts,” Baksay concluded. “This is about the lives of children, and it’s time we treat it with the seriousness its demands.”
In January, Senator Rick Scott and Senator Ron Johnson introduced the Stop Human Trafficking of Unaccompanied Migrant Children Act to crack down on the human trafficking of unaccompanied migrant children through comprehensive vetting procedures of sponsors, regular monitoring and updates on the child’s well-being.
