How Biden Immigration Policies Encouraged Child Trafficking

Following viral videos showing illegal aliens detained in the presence of their children, critics have repeatedly accused the Trump administration of endangering minors. Some have even alleged child trafficking after watching government agents remove children from arrest scenes. Those accusations overlook why authorities must verify anyone seeking custody of a child.

Under Biden, weakened sponsor screening allowed children to be released to adults using false identities and fraudulent documents, exposing them to trafficking and abuse.

When Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests an illegal alien parent, the child is not arrested but may need temporary care. If no other parent or authorized caregiver is present, authorities cannot leave the child alone on the street. Children generally are not placed in adult detention facilities and may be held separately until a suitable relative or guardian can be found.

The child is not handed to whoever asks. Many videos that supposedly show ICE’s “traumatic” and “horrific” acts against children include a bystander shouting, “I can take the child!” The media then reports that ICE took the child despite that offer. But an offer alone does not establish that the person is an authorized or suitable caregiver. The government has a legal responsibility to protect children from release to unauthorized adults, including traffickers and abusers.

The exploitation of children to secure entry dates back to Obama. Following a 2015 ruling applying the Flores settlement to children in family detention, the Homeland Security Advisory Council identified release with a notice to appear as a major pull factor, intensified by the ruling. Family apprehensions rose from 14,855 in fiscal year 2013 to 390,308 in the first nine months of fiscal year 2019, according to DHS family-apprehension figures.

An ICE official told Senate lawmakers that more than 600 children had been “recycled” through the border by adults seeking release. Some crossed as many as eight times with different, unrelated adults. Rapid DNA testing identified fraudulent family claims in 13 to 15 percent of the cases tested.

Biden’s policy changes subsequently increased the number of unaccompanied children entering federal custody. Title 42, a public-health order issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowed Border Patrol to expel migrants without processing their asylum claims. In February 2021, the Biden administration exempted unaccompanied children, while most adults and families remained subject to expulsion. Children arriving alone were transferred to federal custody and subsequently released to U.S. sponsors while their immigration cases proceeded.

According to the Congressional Research Service, encounters with unaccompanied children reached a monthly record of 18,715 in March 2021 and an annual record of 149,093 in fiscal year 2022.

As arrivals surged, the Biden administration relaxed screening of prospective sponsors. The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), conducts that screening before releasing children from federal custody. A Senate Homeland Security committee report found that administration guidance waived public-records and sex-offender registry checks for certain adults. Digital fingerprinting of prospective sponsors fell by more than 50 percent.

An October 1, 2026, HHS report identified false identities, fraudulent documents, and false or unverifiable sponsor addresses. HHS said screening had been relaxed to accelerate children’s release. In fiscal year 2024, ORR denied fewer than one percent of sponsorship applications.

In August 2023, ORR released a 15-year-old migrant girl to a man claiming to be her biological brother without requiring fingerprints or DNA verification, according to HHS. Authorities later determined he was unrelated to her and allegedly raped and impregnated her. He faces criminal charges, and the investigation continues.

In July 2024, a Venezuelan migrant boy, 17, was released to a purported stepsister whose Venezuelan documents HHS could not authenticate. Three months later, he was found dead in a vehicle beside an unconscious 30-year-old man. The memorandum did not establish that the sponsor caused his death.

Broader oversight failures extended beyond sponsor screening. The DHS Inspector General found that more than 32,000 unaccompanied children missed immigration court hearings between fiscal years 2019 and 2023. As of May 2024, ICE had not served notices to appear on more than 291,000 others. The report warned that children who miss court face greater risks of trafficking, exploitation, and forced labor.

Biden’s immigration policies encouraged adults, including traffickers, to use children to enter or remain in the United States illegally. They also encouraged family separation by creating incentives for parents to send children across the border alone or with smugglers. Once here, children were released to inadequately vetted sponsors, sometimes using false identities and fraudulent documents.

Securing the border and enforcing the deportation of illegal alien children reduce those incentives. The prospect of being returned under Trump discourages parents from sending children on the dangerous journey and adults from using children to gain entry or avoid removal. Returning children safely to verified parents in their home countries reunites families separated by illegal migration.

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