RECORDS: HHS Sent Unaccompanied Minors to Sponsors with MS-13 Ties, Potential Trafficking Rings

WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today released internal records from the Biden administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revealing HHS knowingly sent two unaccompanied migrant children to a household with established connections to the violent MS-13 gang. Grassley is also making public the referral he shared with federal law enforcement containing evidence of potential child trafficking facilitated by HHS’ Unaccompanied Children (UC) program. Grassley, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and co-chair of the Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus, acquired the records through legally protected whistleblower disclosures made by former HHS UC program staff.

 

“HHS, Congress and the American people must face the facts: HHS’ UC program has glaring defects that are harming innocent children,” Grassley said. “The records I’m releasing today are the kind the government fights tooth and nail to withhold from the public, and they ought to send a chill up every person’s spine. I’m not going to stop fighting until the UC program is fixed, and HHS and its contractors end their obstruction and fully respond to my oversight requests. I’m also doing everything in my power to ensure federal law enforcement leaves no stone unturned in the pursuit of justice for lost and abused unaccompanied kids.” 

                                            

Records show on September 3, 2021, an HHS UC staff member sought to intervene in the transfer of a female unaccompanied minor to a sponsor who formerly maintained a romantic partnership with an MS-13 gang member. HHS officials dismissed concerns regarding the sponsor’s MS-13 ties and transferred the girl to the flagged sponsor the following day.

 

Records further document the staff member’s repeated follow-up attempts to prevent the sponsor’s unaccompanied minor son from being sent to the same household. The boy’s father was an official member of the MS-13 gang and had received a lengthy prison sentence for gang-related crimes. According to records and supporting whistleblower statements, HHS again rejected the staff member’s flags and transferred the boy.

 

The records corroborate whistleblower statements delivered during a Senate roundtable this week. Shortly after speaking out in September 2021, the whistleblower who raised concerns regarding the MS-13-related sponsors was taken off the case, her credentials were revoked and she was walked off her work site by a top HHS official.

 

Grassley on January 23, 2024 sent the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) a referral packet citing HHS UC records indicating potential labor and sex trafficking. Grassley’s referral was supported by government files related to thousands of unaccompanied children processed through the Pomona, California Emergency Intake Site (EIS) and traced cases of possible trafficking across the country.

 

The referral details several cases in which unaccompanied minors, mostly from Central America, were sent to households with poorly-vetted and otherwise suspicious sponsors. In one case, more than 50 unaccompanied minors were sent to the same address. Many sponsors submitted seemingly fraudulent documents in an attempt to prove their relationship with the children they acquired.

 

DHS has been in contact with Grassley’s office as a result of the referral. FBI has failed to provide substantive updates to Grassley’s referral. 

 

10.10.2014 | Grassley, Hatch, Coburn Press For GAO Study On The Office Of Refugee Resettlement Efforts With Unaccompanied Minors