nick

#BREAKING: “An assembly line” for unaccompanied minors—That’s how senior adviser with ORR at HHS @JohnE_Fabb described the Biden-era system for processing and releasing kids who came across the border without a parent or guardian. A memo released today says children were handed over to sponsors without adequate vetting—including adults whose identities or claimed family relationships had not been verified. HHS says weakened screening left gaps that exposed children to exploitation and abuse. The memo says ORR did not require fingerprints for every sponsor category or background checks on every adult in the home, permitted expired identification and loosened address verification. And in fiscal year 2024, ORR denied fewer than 1% of sponsorship applications, according to the memo. Among the cases: • A 15-year-old girl was released to a man claiming to be her biological brother without fingerprints or DNA checks. Authorities later determined he was unrelated and that undisclosed adult men lived in the home. HHS says he allegedly raped and impregnated her. He faces state charges. • A 17-year-old boy was released to a purported stepsister using Venezuelan documents HHS could not authenticate. Three months later, he was found dead in a car with his genitalia exposed, alongside an unconscious 30-year-old man. The memo does not identify that man as the sponsor or establish the cause of death. • A nine-year-old girl was approved for release despite home studies documenting an allegedly abusive brother in the household, unknown residents and unsafe conditions. The memo says her current status is unknown. ORR’s fraud-trend data puts intentional document or information fraud at approximately 77% of reported Child Level Events—not 77% of all children in the program. Separately, about 85% of cases examined in a targeted review involved intentional document fraud. ORR also says it uncovered 65,000 unanswered child-related reports in March 2025, including warnings and requests for help. The six fraud categories: identity documents, manipulated photographs, addresses, fingerprints, undisclosed household members and age misrepresentation. HHS says screening changes began in February 2025. The review concludes stronger identity checks might have prevented some fraud and reduced risks to children. This comes as @RealTomHoman says they have located approximately 157,000 of the roughly 300k unaccompanied minors that essentially went unaccounted for under the previous administration.