by Charlotte Hazard and John Solomon
Whistleblower Deborah White proved to be the perfect candidate when the government in 2021 asked federal agencies to provide fleeting assist processing the claims of thousands of migrant children who began crossing the southern border without their parents at the beginning of the Biden administration’s border crisis.
As a career employee in the General Services Administration, White had experience managing enormous federal projects and was a native Spanish speaker who could speak directly to children from Latin American countries. So in May 2021, she was quickly loaned from GSA to the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency responsible for finding unthreatening homes for children known as “unaccompanied minors” in federal parlance.
But when she arrived in Pomona, California, to assist process the babies’ data and begin monitoring, what she saw horrified her.
Children told her how they were raped and forced to give birth while in the custody of drug cartels that were trafficking them from their parents’ homes to the U.S., hoping to take advantage of Biden’s recent immigration policies.
And federal efforts to provide them with unthreatening havens once they arrived in America were rushed, like an assembly line, increasing the risk that children would end up in unsafe shelters or with caregivers who were not properly vetted, he added.
“The mantra was that speed trumps safety,” White said. John Solomon’s Reports podcast on Tuesday, the same day she delivered her story to three Republican senators who a round table was held.
White said she quickly discovered that some of the children were likely entering a potential trafficking ring when she ran background checks and discovered that some of the adult sponsors were actually migrant children who had just turned 18 or 19. When she reported the potential trafficking links to a supervisor, her access to the databases was blocked.
She eventually tipped off the HHS inspector general and regained the ability to vet sponsors. But the experience convinced her that the very process the federal government had put in place to protect unaccompanied migrant minors was, in fact, flawed enough to put many at risk.
“It’s disgusting. Honestly, if I hadn’t lived it, I would have a hard time believing it because it’s so blatant,” White said Just news. “If I hadn’t been through this experience, I understand why people would think that, you know, we’re crazy or something. But we’re not, that’s the reality.”
An HHS spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. Only news.
What White experienced from May to September 2021 was later confirmed by Congress and the HHS inspector general.
Representative Glenn Grothman, Republican of Wisconsin, chairman of the House subcommittee on border security, said officials told him the government could not vouch for where 85,000 migrant children are staying were allowed into the country under Biden.
AND HHS Inspector General has issued several reports warning that ORR and other agencies are not properly screening nursing homes and sponsors, as required by law, including a February report that stated,:
- In 16% of children’s case files, where at least one required security check was conducted by the sponsor, there was no documentation indicating that such a check was conducted.
- For 19% of children who were released to caregivers following an FBI fingerprint check or Child Abuse and Neglect Registry check, the children’s case files were never updated with the results of the check.
- In 35% of children’s case files, the identity cards provided by the sponsor were illegible.
- In 22% of cases, ORR did not conduct timely follow-up calls regarding safety and well-being, and in 18% of cases, follow-up calls were not documented in the child’s case file.
White told her story publicly for the first time at a forum Tuesday chaired by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who were joined by another whistleblower named Tara Rodas.
White spoke of the horrors immigrant children witnessed even before they crossed the border.
“They usually owed about $2,500,” she said. “They… knew they were coming here to work and pay off the debt. So the trafficking was completely out of control. You know, there were cases where children were sexually abused along the way.”
Lawmakers expressed outrage not only at the IG statistics, but also at the specific stories told by the two whistleblowers, drawing on their personal experiences.
“This is not willful ignorance. This is not willful neglect,” Johnson said during his opening speech. “It is malicious to allow children to be subjected to this, knowing full well that children have been trafficked [and] that people’s eyes and organs will be harvested, and boys and girls will be raped and mutilated.”
Cassidy added: “Children are being released into dangerous environments to be exploited for illegal labor, resulting in serious injuries such as dismemberment and broken bones. There is even a news report of one child who died after being pulled into a meat processing machine. The Biden administration is failing these children. It is failing them on basic human rights.”
Rodas testified during the roundtable that she faced retaliation from the Office of Refugee Resettlement when she reported that MS-13 gang members were sponsoring migrant children.
“It is worth noting that when I reported the MS-13 case and provided evidence that other MS-13 and 18th Street gang members were sponsoring children, ORR responded by repressing me,” she said.
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., appeared at the end of the hearing to ask questions about the crisis and said that when the GOP is in the majority in Congress, they will take action to fix this mess.
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Charlotte Hazard is a reporter for Just the News.
John Solomon is an award-winning investigative journalist, author and digital media entrepreneur who serves as CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Just the News.
