REPORT: Biden Administration Blocking Migrant Children Investigation

In February 2023, the New York Times published a blistering report regarding the handling of migrant children by the Biden administration.

Since then, impacted states and congressional committees have been trying to get to the truth, but they continue to encounter roadblocks from this administration.

Bombshell NYT Report

The 2023 report by the Times discussed how unaccompanied children were coming across the border in droves.

With so many children to process, the administration had cut back on some of the vetting, which resulted in children being trafficked as well as being put to work in sweatshops across the country.

Many of these children were working in factories that supplied major brands, such as Cheerios and Fruit of the Loom.

One of the girls the Times spoke to was only 15 years old, being forced to work the night shift at a factory that packaged Cheerios.

Following Up

The Times wrote a follow-up report in April, hammering the administration for missing signs that this was happening.

In that report, Linda Brandmiller came forward to discuss how the vetting processes were being trimmed down to process the children faster by loosening the vetting of sponsors for the children.

When she brought these issues to her supervisors, they were largely ignored.

After she created a dust-up of a child being released to a questionable sponsor, demanding “immediate attention,” she was fired within just a few days.

Roadblocks

This lack of vetting has resulted in the administration losing track of tens of thousands of children. Republicans say the administration has “lost” the children, but after it became a talking point for Trump, the media, including the Times, said that the facts were being manipulated.

This led to congressional hearings and investigations, as well as state investigations, but they are all being blocked, as documented in a scathing report by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, whose report, stated, “When Ranking Member Cassidy attempted to hold the Biden-Harris administration accountable, the administration made every effort to cover its failures up and to stonewall each new oversight effort — a course of action that continues today.

“The administration also refuses to comply with state-level efforts to investigate and prevent the trafficking and exploitation of [unaccompanied children] caused by its own weak sponsor vetting policies and the chaos.”

Children being “lost” is nothing new, as it happens in just about every administration, including Trump’s first administration, but not to this degree. Ironically, when Trump was in office, the Times posted a headline that read, “U.S. Loses Track of Another 1,500 Migrant Children,” but when Biden lost track of 80,000, they chose to present it differently.

The bottom line here is that we need to crack down on unaccompanied minors crossing the border, and when they are permitted to enter, the vetting must be complete to the point the government knows these children are safe. Turning these kids over to unknowns and having them end up in trafficking rings or sweatshops is simply unacceptable. Hopefully, after Trump takes office, we can get to the bottom of the seriousness of this situation under the Biden administration.