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Fox News Cross the border and disappeared into the system under Biden’s management.
Under the Trump administration, so far, 22,638 unaccompanied children have been arrested and more than 400 sponsors have been arrested. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, murder, suicide or drug overdose was found dead, and 27 of them were found dead.
“It is important that we have to find out that these cases are used for labor and sexual trafficking,” John Fabbricatore, HHS Refugee Resettlement Office Senior consultant said.
The team was grouped in March to fulfill one of President Donald Trump’s campaign promises. His mission Border Cheese Tom Homan Finding idle children, many of whom have been released to uncensored sponsors or non-family members, makes them vulnerable to exploitation, trafficking and severe working conditions.
Trump’s Department of Homeland Security discovers immigrant children
Archives – Unaccompanied minor immigrants wait on April 7, 2021 from Mexico to the United States, waiting to be shipped by the U.S. Border Patrol. (Reuters/GO Nakamura)
The team operates under HHS and is composed of volunteers from various agencies including the FBI and Homeland Security Survey. What they were known from Washington, D.C. is officially called the “War Room” and is officially called the ORR Inter-Agency Crime Coordination Cell.
According to Fabbricatore, the team was able to spot many minors under sad conditions.
“We found the child who was raped,” he said. “We are talking about debt bondage, where children are paid off, debt trafficking. The child we are talking about is brought into the situation and then treated like a sex slave.
In early 2021, record-breaking children began to cross the border faster than HHS could handle. Between January 2021 and December 2024, ORR received referrals from more than 470,000 unaccompanied alien children across the border.
According to HHS, many of these children were released under very lax review policies to policies that did not ensure the safety of children or prevent multiple situations that endanger children, including neglect, labour exploitation, trafficking, sexual and physical abuse.
The new team is data-driven, with a focus on analyzing records and addresses to track where these minors eventually arrive.
Archives – Unaccompanied female immigrant children are seen on the left, registering with other asylum-seeking immigrants who crossed Rio Grande into the United States from Mexico, Rome, Texas on May 14, 2022. (Reuters/adrees latif)
Fabbricatore said there was “no good record keeping” under the Biden administration. “It’s attracting data to be able to identify the addresses these kids go to, who these sponsors are actually. In many cases, the data is terrible. The Biden Administration is accepting and investing in our computer systems is not the right information. So now we have to delve all these kids into and dive into where these kids are.”
According to Fabbricatore, the biggest mistake in the screening was the failure to perform DNA tests to confirm that the child is being released to actual family members.
The Trump administration has taken steps to improve the review process for children arriving in the United States alone, ensuring sponsors, usually parents or guardians, are properly screened. These include the need for DNA testing, income proof to demonstrate the ability to care for children, criminal background checks, fingerprint recognition and identification verification.
“So now, under this administration, we make sure we know there is a real family connection through DNA and we won’t release these kids unless we have the right information,” Fabbricatore said. “The kids are detained longer, but there is a reason because we want to make sure these kids stay safe.
Orr said when the Trump administration took office, there was more than 65,000 unresolved backlog of post-release reports called “concern notifications.” These internal reports are related to unaccompanied foreign children, including from administrative issues to allegations of potential trafficking and criminal exploitation.
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Immigration Commission’s transport van after getting on and off the plane on Sunday, August 31, 2025 in Harlingen, Texas. (AP Photo/Michael Gonzalez)
Orr said the government has identified about 1,700 cases of children under the age of 12 with unrelated sponsor placement, without evidence of family studies.
In the backlog, ORR reviewed about 90%, and the remaining reports are not yet 7,000.
Fabbricatore said that when children are positioned, the goal is to reunite them with their parents if they are in another country without credible fear claims.
“If their parents were in a former country and had no credible fear claims, wouldn’t the kids get along better with their parents or our foster care system in the United States?” Fabbricatore said. “I think we shouldn’t be cared for in the United States when they have family members in their country of origin. If we can prove that they are safer in the country, that’s where they are going back, that’s where they should be with their parents.”
