Thousands of Unaccompanied Immigrant Children Now Victims of ‘Taxpayer-Funded Child Slavery’

Data collected between February of 2021 and January of 2024 revealed “464,922 [unaccompanied] children have been encountered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection police nationwide.” Some experts, such as those from the child immigrant aid organization Kids in Need of Defense, have explained this surplus of unaccompanied minors was “expected” and likely due to “U.S. measures implemented at the border during the coronavirus pandemic.” But what is shocking, experts have gone on to point out, is how the whereabouts of thousands of these children are unknown, with the biggest concern being that many are becoming victims of human trafficking.

These concerns flooded the mainstream media as whistleblowers testified in a roundtable discussion on Tuesday. The accusation laid forth is that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Labor are guilty “of covering up how the government and contracted companies have failed to properly care for 500,000 parentless immigrant children in government custody at the border,” the Washington Examiner reported.

Acknowledging the outcry, HHS Secretary Xavier Bacerra said, “No child has gone missing under our watch.” But Allison Dyer pointed out on X that not only is Bacerra’s statement false, but she used information collected by a New York Times report to highlight that “85,000 unaccompanied children released to sponsors in the United States by our government are unable to be accounted for,” meaning “their whereabouts or welfare are unknown.”

Emphasizing a point similar to Dyer, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who also serves on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, argued that the claims that these children are not unaccounted for shows a “blatant lack of transparency with the American people.” He added, “Frankly, it is hard to see this as anything other than an effort to cover up and shield the Biden administration from scrutiny for its mistreatment and mishandling of unaccompanied children, particularly in an election year where the president is behind in the polls.”

HHS whistleblower Deborah White described the circumstances as “taxpayer-funded child slavery,” and she noted that part of what led to this was the government “prioritizing speed over safety.” As a result, she stated, children are being sent to abandoned houses, unsafe homes, and even one case in which “a child was sent to an open field,” which only further proves the lack of integrity of the system. White said that even after several concerns were raised, nothing was done to stop children from being sent to dangerous locations.

“[I]t’s unbelievable that we’re … talking about government-sponsored, taxpayerfunded child trafficking,” said Tara Rodas on Thursday’s episode of “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.” Rodas, who formerly worked for the Department of Health and Human Services and testified on Tuesday, explained how she and some of her “colleagues began reporting trafficking cases in June of 2021.” She sighed, “So, if you can imagine, it’s been more than three years” since those first reports.

Rodas emphasized how their efforts were received better “in the beginning, and [we] thought they were going to do something about it.” However, over time, they were threatened and warned from “coming forward to speak the truth.” And “this is not just one incident,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins pointed out, further noting that she “began to see … patterns.”

Rodas explained that what it boils down to is a system that is not organized or monitored well. “So,” she continued, “you can imagine how easily a system like that is exploited.” The process, she described, is that children are brought across the southern border “from Guatemala, El Salvador, all over Central and South America with smugglers.” Then, “the smugglers give them the name and address to where they’re going, the children turn that into Border Patrol, Border patrol turns it over to us at HHS, and then we send the child to that person. It’s really end-to-end delivery.”

And the issue with this, as Perkins noted, is that there’s “no verification of relationship, family connection or anything” to ensure these children end up in a safe place. Again, he contended, “[T]his is being funded by tax dollars. I mean, we’re bringing these children to this country and allowing them to be exploited. This is … horrific.”

In many cases, Rodas explained that what leads children to these horrible homes is the fact that “there is no ultimate verification because” the government “did not even verify if the person was a legal permanent resident.” But ultimately, she insisted, no sensible “child welfare organization around the globe would send a child to an unknown person. … That doesn’t even make sense. And yet, that’s what the government is doing.” However, Rodas concluded that sitting idle is not an option. “There are children in crisis now, and we need to rescue” them.