Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, many times, under both Republicans and Democrats, I have come to the Senate floor to raise concerns and warnings about how immigrant children called unaccompanied children are handled by Republican and Democrat Departments of Health and Human Services. When immigration people don't have the capabilities or probably the legal right to determine where unaccompanied children should be handled, they are turned over to a division in the Department of Health and Human Services to do it.

In the recent 4 or 5 years, we have had lots of cases where the lives of these children aren't protected because the Department of Health and Human Services isn't properly vetting the adults these children are placed with.

So once again, I am here to give you some updates on my concern about that and an update today on investigations that I have followed up on.

As we start a new congressional session, I am here to discuss, as I have just said, an oversight topic of significant importance.

For over a decade, I have investigated the government's mismanagement of migrant children and related matters. My work covers both Republican and Democrat administrations.

During the Biden administration, the vetting process to safeguard these children barely existed, putting them in harm's way. Today, I am making public records obtained from the Trump Department of Health and Human Services which illustrate the dire consequences of weak Biden administration vetting policies. These records show terrible cases of fraud and exploitation involving vulnerable children, and the public needs to know that this is probably just the tip of the iceberg.

I will give you three examples.

One sponsor allegedly applied to take in two migrant children as their father--and as I will show you today, I have two other examples of a person pretending to be a father who was not a father.

Later, this first father I am telling you about allegedly assaulted these brothers on a regular basis. He reportedly didn't allow the brothers to contact their mother, and he didn't enroll them in school. Instead, the brothers lived in a trailer without heating or cooling. The brothers worked 7 days a week until 10 p.m. and lived on one meal a day. The brothers' sponsor also reportedly withheld the wages that the brothers earned so that smuggling fees to get into this country could be paid.

The brothers' sponsor reportedly had a violent criminal history, which could have been revealed through fingerprinting background checks, and these background checks are now required by the Trump administration. They were assumed to be followed by the Biden administration and obviously were not.

The Trump Health and Human Services told my office that they sent this evidence to law enforcement for, hopefully, prosecution.

My second case describes the mistreatment of two other migrant children placed into the care of another sponsor who applied to take them in as their father. One of the children was reportedly forced to sell drugs.

The records show this sponsor was later known to have used multiple aliases as far back as 2015. In addition, records show this sponsor has past convictions for fraud, which should have been caught by fingerprinting checks. This sponsor reportedly later kidnapped his wife for 24 hours and threatened to kill her.

Thankfully, the Health and Human Services Department told my office the children have been removed, and HHS has transmitted this evidence to law enforcement.

The final case I am going to bring to you today concerns a 4-year-old boy who was released to someone who claimed, as you could expect, to be his father. According to Health and Human Services' records, nearly 6 months later, the boy's sponsor called to say that he had taken another job and that his mother would take care of the 4-year-old.

Approximately 1 month later, the sponsor's mother allegedly confessed that her son was not actually the boy's real father. Instead, it was later revealed that the sponsor allegedly colluded with the boy's biological mother to obtain a fraudulent birth certificate to get the boy into the United States.

Health and Human Services told my office they have sent evidence of this fraud to law enforcement.

As these records indicate, the Trump administration has created new DNA testing policies to verify sponsor parents. Now any sponsor of a migrant child claiming to be a biological parent should undergo DNA testing to confirm they are actually related.

Sadly, these stories were all but inevitable because the Biden HHS prioritized speed--getting these people out of the immigration system, getting them out of the authority and the responsibility of HHS. That speed was all prioritized over the safety of the children. Thankfully, the Trump administration put new policies in place.

I greatly appreciate the cooperation with my oversight from Health and Human Services. Specifically, I appreciate the cooperation of Secretary Kennedy, Assistant Secretary Adams, and Director Salazar of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

As the record states, this administration has made efforts to expand DNA testing to help ensure sponsors are, in fact, who they claim to be. In addition, fingerprinting checks should reveal if new sponsors have a criminal or a violent past.

It is pretty simple: Get the background work done to protect these kids.

Together, these new policies represent important steps needed to correct the mistakes of the Biden administration.

More can always be done to safeguard the welfare of vulnerable children. For these reasons, my oversight will continue.

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