Grassley: The Trump Administration is Cleaning Up the Mess from Biden-Harris Failure to Protect Unaccompanied Migrant Kids

Floor Remarks by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa Senate President Pro Tempore “Oversight of the Unaccompanied Alien Children Program” Tuesday, June 10, 2025 VIDEO Mr. President, I would like to discuss a long-running oversight project of mine. Particularly during the last two Congresses, my oversight showed the many ways that the Biden administration failed to protect unaccompanied alien children. We all know the previous HHS and the Department of Homeland Security lost track of hundreds of thousands of these kids. This is a crisis of their own making. They rushed – as we saw on television almost every night over the last few years – rushed people across the border too quickly to deal with the resulting chaos. My oversight has shown other failures. I released documents showing that the Biden Health and Human Services [Department] placed kids in a household tied to the violent MS-13 gang and punished the whistleblowers who reported it. I’ve shown HHS failed to give information to law enforcement, placing kids at greater risk of labor and sex trafficking. This oversight was confirmed by a DHS Inspector General report in March. My oversight continues to reveal the previous administration’s either deliberate indifference or downright incompetence. Recently, I released records showing that the Biden HHS also failed to address a backlog of over 65,000 reports expressing concern for unaccompanied children. This included 7,346 reports related to trafficking. At the same time as the Biden administration was busy targeting pro-life Americans, parents at school board meetings and traditional Catholics, it failed to follow up on actual reporting of children in danger. The Trump administration is cleaning up this mess. Secretary of HHS [Robert F.] Kennedy has already worked through about a third of this backlog. Three dozen cases have been accepted by U.S. Attorneys for prosecution, with 11 arrests and three convictions. Much more is needed, but this is a great first step. -30-