The Biden administration knowingly released two unaccompanied migrant children at the border to live with a convicted criminal MS-13 gang member in the United States, according to government documents obtained in a Senate investigation.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released documents on Thursday that revealed the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) identified an adult sponsor of two children in government custody was a known gang member in California with the Salvadoran criminal organization, but government authorities disregarded that information when it released two children to live with him and a “romantic” partner in September 2021.
“The records I’m releasing today are the kind the government fights tooth and nail to withhold from the public, and they ought to send a chill up every person’s spine,” Grassley said in a statement.
The internal government documents about the case showed that HHS staff attempted multiple times to prevent the boy and girl from being sent to live with the MS-13 adult man.
Grassley referred to the incident as one of thousands of cases that contained evidence of potential child trafficking to the FBI and Department of Homeland Security in January.
The records referred for further investigation were in regard to unaccompanied children detained and released at the Pomona, California, emergency intake site that the Biden administration set up as an overflow facility for children coming across the border.
The referral included information on mostly Central American children who were sent by the U.S. government to live with “poorly vetted and otherwise suspicious sponsors.”
In one example, more than 50 unaccompanied minors were sent to the same address, according to Grassley’s office.
“I’m not going to stop fighting until the [unaccompanied child] program is fixed and HHS and its contractors end their obstruction and fully respond to my oversight requests,” said Grassley. “I’m also doing everything in my power to ensure federal law enforcement leaves no stone unturned in the pursuit of justice for lost and abused unaccompanied kids.”
The revelation comes on the heels of a Senate roundtable in which Grassley, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) heard from HHS whistleblowers about the lack of vetting and screening that adult sponsors received when attempting to take in unaccompanied children in government custody.
Senate Republicans charged the Biden administration with covering up how the government has handled wide-scale child trafficking at the southern border and accused authorities of using taxpayer money to fund “slavery” in America.
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Government whistleblowers and Republican lawmakers blasted Biden and senior officials across the government for refusing to cooperate with a Senate investigation into the whereabouts of as many as 500,000 unaccompanied migrant children who have been apprehended at the southern border under Biden.
The Washington Examiner reached out to HHS for comment.