The Biden administration rubber-stamped more than 99% of sponsor applications for unaccompanied migrant children in fiscal year 2024 — leaving kids vulnerable to rapists, gang members and murderers because of the “less stringent” vetting process, according to a memo obtained by The Post.
The Department of Health and Human Services processed almost half-a-million migrant kids between 2021 and 2024 who were placed with sponsors by the Office of Refugee Resettlement — but by Biden’s final year in office virtually none of the applications from households taking in the kids were denied.
In one horrific instance investigated by HHS, a 15-year-old girl was released to her alleged biological brother — but the alleged sponsor ended up being unrelated and went on to rape and impregnate the migrant child in fall 2023.
“The sponsor has been charged by the state, and the case is under investigation by Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Justice. Prior to sponsoring the 15-year-old female, the purported sponsor had sponsored three [unaccompanied migrant children],” according to the ORR memo.
The high acceptance rate for sponsors was also preceded by a “period from 2022 to 2024, less stringent policies allowed for potential and actual sponsors to exploit gaps in the ORR sponsor vetting process,” the memo also noted.
Under President Trump, HHS investigators have been looking into a backlog of more than 65,000 reports flagging incidents where ORR was tipped off about issues affecting the health or well-being of the migrant children, known as Child Level Events or CLEs.
“ORR’s tracking of fraud trends shows that the average rate of intentional document or information fraud, regardless of the number of children assisted per month, remains at approximately 77% of reported Child Level Events (CLE),” the memo stated.
Between Oct. 1, 2023, and Oct. 31, 2024, roughly 85% of sponsorship applicants were determined to be engaged in “intentional document fraud” when HHS’ Office of General Counsel reviewed nearly 1,700 CLEs in that timeframe.
Fake sponsors used false IDs, manipulated photos, used unverifiable addresses, committed fingerprint fraud or misrepresented the members of the household or the age of the migrant kids in their care.
“The Biden Administration failed in its most basic responsibility: protecting vulnerable children in federal care,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement.
“It weakened safeguards and prioritized speed over scrutiny, leaving children exposed to fraud, exploitation, and abuse. Under President Trump, HHS is restoring rigorous oversight, verifying who takes custody of these children, and putting their safety first. We will hold this system accountable and never sacrifice a child’s safety for bureaucratic convenience.”
Several instances of fraudulent sponsorship that harmed unaccompanied migrant kids occurred in 2024.
“ORR denied less than 1% of sponsorship applications, a data point which suggests these individuals were able to sponsor UAC with little deterrence.
A 17-year-old migrant male was released to an alleged stepsister sponsor — but in October 2024 was “found dead in the back seat of a car, with his genitalia exposed, along with an unconscious 30-year-old male,” per the memo.
Another teenage male migrant was released to a mother who claimed sponsorship but had gang tattoos. In August 2024, the boy “died after having been given seven marijuana joints by unrelated adult men.”
Another February 2025 incident involved a nine-year-old migrant girl who was nearly kept in the same room as her abusive 13-year-old brother — before ORR staff intervened.
During a subsequent visit to the home, “there were multiple unknown individuals … one of the rooms had a strong odor of marijuana and another room of feces, and … glass shards were lying on the floor under a broken window,” the memo stated.
“Despite these warning signs, ORR approved the UAC to be released to the mother’s household. The current status of the UAC is unknown,” it concluded.
The HHS investigation follows a 2024 report from the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, which lost contact with 291,000 migrant children presumed to be in the custody of domestic sponsors.
Another 32,000 were believed to be missing after failing to show up for immigration court hearings, that report found.
