HHS launches investigation into ORR’s handling of unaccompanied migrant children

03/10/2025 / By Laura Harris

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has initiated a comprehensive investigation into the potential abuse and exploitation of unaccompanied migrant children under the Biden administration.
As of May 2024, nearly 323,000 unaccompanied children were either released without court appearance dates or failed to show up for court hearings. A whistleblower has raised concerns about these children falling into the hands of criminals and sex traffickers.
The investigation highlights serious lapses in the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s (ORR) vetting procedures, including instances of doctored images being used to obtain custody of children. Less than one percent of sponsorship applications were denied, and no meaningful steps were taken to address the issue.
In response, the ORR has proposed several critical measures to improve sponsor vetting and oversight, such as fingerprinting, DNA testing, enhanced background checks, facial recognition technology and post-release monitoring.
Some of the proposed changes have already been implemented, including fingerprinting of all adult household members before release. Additional measures are being pushed for by Trump administration sources to further tighten security and accountability within the ORR’s handling of migrant children.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has launched a comprehensive investigation into the potential abuse and exploitation of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children under the Biden administration to ensure that such lapses in safety do not occur again.

According to the investigation, spearheaded by the HHS Office of the General Counsel, as of May 2024, 291,000 migrant children arrived in the U.S. as unaccompanied minors and were released without a date to appear in immigration court. An additional 32,000 children were released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with court hearing dates but failed to show up, raising concerns about their safety and whereabouts. A federal whistleblower has expressed concern that many of these children may have already fallen into the hands of criminals and sex traffickers.

The investigation has found that only less than one percent of sponsorship applications were denied in recent years. But despite these findings, the Biden administration allegedly took no meaningful steps to address the issue. (Related: Trump signs executive order halting taxpayer funds for illegal immigrants, prioritizing American citizens.)

This reveals serious lapses in the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s (ORR) vetting procedures, which may have allowed children to fall into the hands of human traffickers and sexual predators. The probe highlights how ORR prioritized expediency over safety, resulting in a system that failed to adequately protect vulnerable children.

It details several egregious cases of lax vetting, including instances where sponsors submitted doctored or fake images to obtain custody of children.

HHS investigation calls for reforms

In line with this, the investigation has prompted calls for sweeping reforms to improve sponsor vetting and boost oversight.

Among the proposed reforms, the ORR has outlined several critical measures to strengthen its procedures. These include fingerprinting and DNA testing to verify the identity of sponsors and ensure that children are placed with verified and trustworthy individuals; enhanced background checks for potential caregivers to weed out any individuals with criminal records or other red flags; and facial recognition technology and post-release monitoring to track the safety of migrant children after their release from ORR custody.

A second senior HHS source confirmed that some of these changes are already in place. “The fingerprinting recommendation, it’s already implemented. And that has been put out in the field guidance to ensure that all adult household members, their sponsors are fingerprinted and that’s checked and verified before they’re released. Which again, seems completely obvious, but it wasn’t happening.”

The same official highlighted the critical nature of these reforms, noting, “In the last administration, they weren’t even fingerprinting sponsors. We didn’t know who those people were that we were releasing kids to.” This lack of basic vetting techniques created significant vulnerabilities in the system, potentially putting children at risk.

As the investigation progresses, Trump administration sources are also pushing for additional measures to address the pipeline that puts migrant children in harm’s way. These efforts are expected to lead to sweeping reforms aimed at tightening security and accountability within the ORR’s handling of migrant children.

Head over to Migrants.news for more stories like this.

Watch the video below where Karoline Leavitt talks about Trump taking necessary actions to secure the border.

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