In a recent roundtable discussion with Republican Senators Chuck Grassley, Bill Cassidy, and Ron Johnson, whistleblowers from the Biden administration’s Office of Refugee Resettlement revealed that the department had failed to properly vet sponsors responsible for caring for unaccompanied children apprehended at the border. As a result, several cases of human trafficking involving these minors and their sponsors were discovered.
Deborah White, a federal employee detailed to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), shared her experience during the roundtable, describing the horrifying circumstances she encountered while working on this issue. She reported that children were being trafficked using billions of taxpayer dollars by a contractor failing to vet sponsors and process children safely, with government officials complicit in it.
White revealed that she and her colleague, Tara Rodas, first discovered a case of trafficking involving minors crossing the border in June 2021, but even after reporting it, “children continued to be sent to dangerous locations with improperly vetted sponsors.” In some instances, children were sent to abandoned houses or nonexistent addresses. White recounted an example where a child was sent to an open field in Michigan, despite her team’s attempts to report the situation.
The whistleblowers argue that ORR and its primary contractor, Cherokee Federal, ignored warnings about children being trafficked in order to prevent crowding at the southern border. White described the program as “the biggest failure in government history that I have ever witnessed.” She called for reforms within ORR to protect children from harm and demanded accountability for those responsible for these failures.
Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary Shevaun Harris expressed concern about the fact that less than 10% of children apprehended at the border are being released to their parents, calling it “frightening” and “inhumane.” Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) argued that addressing this issue should not be a partisan matter, stating that President Biden has the power to prevent further exploitation of children by securing the border and reforming ORR.
