The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is revealing significant issues of mistreatment and exploitation of unaccompanied minors who crossed into the U.S. during the previous administration and were placed with sponsors without proper vetting.

In February, DHS initiated a nationwide child welfare program to identify and find children at risk, who may have been placed with sponsors lacking adequate background checks — some of these sponsors were involved with smugglers — upon their arrival in the United States.

“Ensuring the safety and security of children is crucial,” stated ICE spokesperson Laszlo Baksay. “The former administration’s neglect to introduce proper protection measures has led to vulnerable kids being exploited by criminals. Our dedicated agents are persistently working to locate these undocumented children, safeguard them, and bring to justice those who have manipulated the system.”

DHS added that since the agency launched its child welfare initiative, officials have discovered sponsors in possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), sponsors who forced minors into labor, and sponsors who subjected children to neglectful living conditions. 

A U.S. Border Patrol agent checks for identification of immigrants as they wait to be processed by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the border from Mexico on Dec. 30, 2022 in Yuma, Arizona.  (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)

ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents have been conducting welfare checks on migrant children who crossed the border unaccompanied. The welfare checks are designed to assess the children’s situations and ensure they are receiving appropriate care and not being abused or trafficked, according to DHS.

A group of 116 illegal immigrants, including 11 unaccompanied children, were apprehended in Eagle Pass, Texas on Wednesday morning. (Texas DPS)

“Our agents are doing what should’ve been done all along: protecting children, not pushing them into the shadows,” Baksay said. “This is the responsibility of any government, Republican or Democrat, but it was the Trump administration that insisted on rigorous sponsor screening and biometric verification. Those guardrails were dismantled, and we’re now seeing the consequences.”

If an ICE HSI officer encounters adults living in the United States illegally, they will take those people into custody and process them for removal, while unaccompanied children living in the United States illegally are transferred to Office of Refugee Resettlement custody, DHS said.