Grassley, Cornyn Continue to Press Administration on Vetting of Sponsors for Unaccompanied Minors

Statement

U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) earlier this week sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell seeking more information about the current screening processes for potential sponsors of unaccompanied children in custody of the federal government.

More than 200,000 unaccompanied minors have been apprehended at the border from fiscal year 2009 through 2014. The sheer number of minors seeking sponsorship provides great opportunity for fraud and allows many to slip through the cracks in the system. The Senators continue to seek information about the vetting of sponsors, and question the Departments about possible fraud schemes throughout the placement process.

"We must ensure that there are no gaps in the process which would put the most vulnerable at risk of abuse, neglect, exploitation, or harm," Senators Cornyn and Grassley wrote.

Senators Cornyn and Grassley sought information from Secretaries Johnson and Burwell in November after a whistleblower alleged that 3,400 sponsors out of a sample of 29,000 listed in a government database have criminal histories that include domestic violence, homicide, child molestation, sexual assault and human trafficking. U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) and the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report in January outlining the inadequate screening process through which unaccompanied children are released to sponsors by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Tuesday, February 23rd at 2:00 p.m. regarding the Obama Administration's handling of unaccompanied children who are entering the country illegally.

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