DHS reveals abuse of uncompetitive minors.
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The Department of Homeland Security is pulling back the curtains with widespread abuse and exploitation Unaccompanied minors crossing the US border It was placed during the last administration and with undiscovered sponsors.
DHS launched the National Child Welfare initiative in February to identify and find at-risk children who may have been inappropriately reviewed or placed with sponsors that have not been ignored. Rewarded by the smuggler – When they came to the US.
“We cannot negotiate the safety and security of children,” ICE spokesman Laszlo Baksay said in a statement. “The previous administration failed to implement meaningful safeguards, allowing vulnerable children to enter the hands of criminals. Our special agents work tirelessly to find these alien children, ensure protection, and to take responsibility for those who abused the system.”
DHS added that since the agency launched its Child Welfare Initiative, authorities have found sponsors who possessed Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM), sponsors who forced minors into the workforce, and sponsors who exposed children to neglectful living conditions.
A group of 116 illegal immigrants, including 11 unaccompanied children, have been arrested in Eagle Pass, Texas. (Texas DPS)
Additionally, authorities have tracked the records of sponsors who have been previously convicted of serious crimes ranging from hit-and-run and attempted murder to prostitution and drug trafficking.
In some of the “most unsettling cases,” sponsors mistakenly claim that Chris Krem, former border patrol chief in sector Yuma, former border patrol chief, DHS and former border patrol chief in Yuma, Arizona, are the family of unaccompanied minor girls. During his first 100 days in office, Clem helped advise the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services on solutions for unaccompanied minors.
“It’s important to have these kids regardless of the ideologue you’re out there.”
“It started on the day of the inauguration, but due to the backlog of the incident, the information was poor at best in many of these cases,” Clem said of the Child Welfare Initiative. “It took a lot of time, so we have a lot of things in place… Everything is lined up. … There should be zero controversy about protecting children. It’s important to consider these kids regardless of the ideologues there.”
Immigrants will be processed on Tuesday, March 30, 2021 at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Facility, a major detention center for non-accompanied children, in the Rio Grande Valley, Donna, Texas. (AP)
As a former border patrol agent and chief, Krem added that he knew there was an issue that was “unaddressed” with unaccompanied minors during the last administration, during which millions of illegal immigrants entered the country from the southern border.
The American Federation of Immigration Reform (FAIR), which claims a low level across the country, estimates that as of March 2025, there was almost none. 18.6 million illegal immigrants living in the United StatesThis represents a population that has increased by approximately 28.2% or 4.1 million since December 2020.
The US Border Patrol vehicle will take away a group of vulnerable immigrants, including unaccompanied minors who crossed from Mexico in El Paso, Texas in May 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)
This week, new Border Guard Data shows Zero Immigrants were released to the US in May, An overwhelming transformation 62,000 people were released to the country under the Biden administration at the same time last year.
“We knew from a law enforcement perspective. Our job was to do immediate safety checks. Then we had to handle the children and place them in refugee duties (resettlement) detention. Well, we didn’t know what happened from there, what exactly happened.
Agents from the Arizona Border Patrol arrested 81 immigrant children in August 2022, with 71 unaccompanied. (@usbpchieftca via Twitter)
“The American people’s expectations that our government is serving our children in the best interests are absolutely necessary,” Clem said.
“So that’s why that’s why it matters to me, because it protects kids and the vast majority of Americans do what we expect as government to do. It’s at least taking care of these kids.”
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US Border Patrol agents will check immigrant identification while waiting to be handled by US Border Patrol after crossing the border from Mexico in Yuma, Arizona on December 30, 2022. (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)
ICE Homeland Security Survey (HSI) Special agents have conducted welfare checks on unaccompanied cross-border immigrant children. Welfare checks are designed to assess children’s situations and ensure that they are not abused or trafficked, according to the DHS.
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A group of 116 illegal immigrants, including 11 children without accompaniment, was arrested Wednesday morning in Eagle Pass, Texas. (Texas DPS)
“Our agents are doing what they should have been doing all along. They are protecting the child and not pushing the child into the shadows,” Baksei said. “It’s the responsibility of the government, Republicans, or Democrats, but it was the Trump administration that insisted on strict sponsor screening and biometric authentication. These guardrails have been dismantled and we are now seeing the results.”
If ICE HSI officers illegally encounter adults living in the United States, they will detain and process those people for removal, but unaccompanied children who do not live in the United States will be transferred to refugee resettlement oversight positions, DHS said.
Taylor Penley of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.