The Biden administration placed more than 11,000 unaccompanied illegal-immigrant children with unvetted sponsors who were not the child’s legal guardian or parent — the latest example of the previous White House’s mismanagement of its refugee program.
From January 2021 to January 2025, HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement put 11,488 unaccompanied immigrant children in the hands of unvetted sponsors who were not parents or guardians and who were not fingerprinted or did not complete a background check, according to HHS data released Monday by Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa).
“My oversight continues to expose disturbing evidence that the Biden-Harris administration turned a blind eye to tens of thousands of kids who needed proper supervision and care. It’s appalling to prioritize speed and optics over the safety and wellbeing of children,” Grassley said in a statement.
“I appreciate the Trump administration’s efforts to undo the damage caused by the last administration’s failed border policies, and I’ll continue my oversight of the issue to ensure abuse like this never happens again.”
Over the same period, the Biden administration failed to conduct home studies for 79,143 migrant children under twelve, including 1,961 children placed in households where home studies were the recommended course of action. Home studies are required for releasing children twelve and under to sponsors who are not the parent or legal guardian of an unaccompanied migrant child. The studies allow caseworkers to corroborate background information about the sponsor and to assess the sponsor’s ability to provide for the child’s basic needs.
From October 2020 to September 2024, a time period that mostly encompassed the Biden administration, HHS managed 468,756 unaccompanied migrant children, according to the HHS data. The agency has taken care of 21,399 of them from October 2024 to June 2025, a period that covers President Donald Trump’s 2024 election victory and the first 100 days of his term.
In a letter to Grassley, HHS said it delivered all the data to the best of its ability, but issues with the data systems could have created minor inaccuracies.
“In conclusion, we have provided all the information requested to the best of our ability; however, due to limitations within our current data systems, some of the information may be subject to minor inaccuracies,” said Andrew Gradison, acting assistant secretary for the HHS administration for children and families.
“While the data may not be perfectly formatted or complete in every instance, we are confident it reflects a reliable and good-faith effort to fulfill your request as accurately as possible.”
Gradison’s letter summarizes HHS policies related to each of Grassley’s oversight concerns and includes the data that Grassley requested during a briefing in May. Grassley has conducted extensive oversight of how HHS is handing unaccompanied immigrant children and has pressed the Trump administration to correct the mistakes of its predecessor. Earlier this year, Grassley asked the Trump administration for an update on its progress in completing the Biden administration’s backlog of child-welfare cases connected to unaccompanied illegal immigrants.
The Biden administration’s HHS spent $22.5 billion on assistance to illegal immigrants, with $12.6 billion of the funds going to the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s program for resettling migrants. The funding did not prevent DHS and HHS from losing track of thousands of immigrant children under the previous administration.
In February 2025, the Department of Homeland Security started working with its federal and state partners to find the unaccompanied immigrant children placed with unvetted sponsors to protect them from potential smuggling and exploitation. Around the same time, HHS released new guidance to ensure better vetting of sponsors to prevent gang members and sex traffickers from exploiting the system to gain access to vulnerable children.