Wrap Up: Thousands of Unaccompanied Alien Children Still Missing Due to the Biden Administration’s Policies

WASHINGTON-Today, the Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement held a roundtable titled "Catch and Release, Lose and Forget: Addressing the Crisis of Unaccompanied Alien Children-Part III." During the roundtable, Members and participants discussed how cartels exploited the disastrous policy decisions made by the Biden Administration that facilitated the mass migration of unaccompanied alien children (UACs) into the country, as well as the Biden Administration's failure to monitor their location and status once here. Members and participants also analyzed the ways Chinese money laundering networks have become a significant enabler of this system. Democrats failed to appear and participate in the discussion.

Key Takeaways:

The Biden Administration's open border policies led to UACs being trafficked and exploited by violent cartels and criminal organizations.

• Ali Hopper, President & Co-Founder of GUARD Against Trafficking, stated that "By June 11^th [2027], the [Trump] Administration reported locating 146,000 unaccompanied children. Sit with that number for a second. More than 81,000 instances involving repeated sponsor addresses. More than 76,000 cases missing mandatory safety checks and more than 97000 cases lacking the required background checks. American taxpayers funded a system intended to protect children, yet basic safeguards failed."
• Megan Lundstrom, Chief Executive Officer of Polaris, stated that "Trust is therefore not separate from trafficking intelligence. It is one of the conditions that makes that intelligence possible. Let's consider what we learned about these 3,064 young people. In these cases, in more than a quarter of these cases, a family member or a caregiver was the recruiter. Many described withheld earnings, debt related control threats to report them to immigration authorities, or having their identification documents taken and destroyed the people, resources, and systems these young people depended on were being weaponized by their traffickers to control them. In a separate analysis of Polaris historical trafficking data, organized crime indicators appear in about four percent of cases and only one percent identified a notable organized group by name. Those figures reflect what is known and shared with us, not the actual prevalence of organized crime in trafficking. They neither tell us organized crime is rare nor justify presuming it underlies every trafficking case."
  
• Louis DeTitto, Illicit Finance Strategy Consultant at Chenega Defense & Aerospace Solutions, stated that "Child exploitation is one component of a broader portfolio that includes human trafficking, drug trafficking, fraud scams, money laundering, labor exploitation, and other crimes. When these networks target unaccompanied children, a child's identity, labor, financial access and apparent legitimacy may be used to insulate criminal organizers from illicit transactions, obscure beneficial control, and reduce network detection. Exploitation may begin at the border through sponsorship fraud, forced labor, debt bondage, identity theft or trafficking. Yet network control may continue into adulthood and create durable criminal infrastructure in the United States."

Chinese money laundering networks have enabled the system and promoted child trafficking, giving cartels a way to launder proceeds and advance their operations.

• Ms. Hopper also stated that "Our research shows that cartels like Sinaloa and CJNG are maintaining southern infrastructure while expanding northern land and maritime routes and exploiting jurisdictional and resource gaps across tribal lands. Confronting these networks requires federal, state, and local cooperation. A recent multi-agency operation in Florida recovered 163 missing children, half of whom I have personally verified were UACs. This shows what coordinated action can accomplish, and at the same. In that same coordination must follow these criminal networks wherever they operate."
• Ms. Lundstrom also noted that "We are experts in human trafficking. We are not experts on the unaccompanied children program, organized criminal networks, or Chinese money laundering networks independently. Our expertise is in what happens where those intersect with human trafficking, and what survivors and communities tell us is happening to and around them. In our historical data, we identified 2,163 trafficking cases involving 3,064 foreign national minors in the United States."
  
• Mr. DeTitto also stated that "From a financial standpoint, Chinese money laundering networks are central to this life cycle. They help commingle proceeds from human trafficking, labor trafficking, drug trafficking, fraud scams, public funds, fraud and other crimes, and they layer those funds through U.S. Financial institutions and global financial infrastructure, and repatriate proceeds into U.S. Banks, businesses, real estate and other fixed assets. That process converts criminal revenue into a permanent presence in our communities and embeds criminal proceeds into lawful markets."

Member Highlights:

Subcommittee Chairman Higgins(R-La.) asked how cartels become involved with trafficking children across the border and how they used the Biden Administration's border policy messaging fueled these trafficking efforts.

Subcommittee Chairman Higgins: "How does a child go from an innocent kid, underprivileged, challenged, but still an innocent kid to in the grasp of that cartel pipeline and ultimately find themselves indebted to the cartels and unable to escape? Can you just walk us through that process?"

Ms. Hopper: "Yes, sir. Thank you for the question. So, what these traffickers and smugglers do is they exploit the hope, the vulnerable situations of these migrants. So, when these migrants are looking for options for hope and they're met with messaging from a prior administration that the border is open, that we will welcome you with open arms, and that once you get here, you will have access to social programs, schooling, cell phones, your children will be taken care of and have opportunity."

Subcommittee Chairman Higgins: "So how does the cartel plug into that when they're when they're still in the pipeline before they arrive here? And how does a cartel convince that child that the that the dreams that they have embraced are real?"

Ms. Hopper: "There was a prime example of just the massive, sheer volume of people crossing into the border and already verifying that they were getting access to these programs. So, it really wasn't hard to message that. And as they went through their smuggling journey, they started accruing that debt and not understanding that that accrual was going to."

Subcommittee Chairman Higgins: "Okay. So that helps us to clarify. So, you're basically confirming that the cartels are using the messaging of the prior administration's policies to reinforce the hope of belief in this this fantasy future that these kids wanted to embrace. And so, you've effectively identified a network and spoken of it."

Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) highlighted that Democrats refused to participate in the roundtable and inquired about who was profiting the most from exploiting and trafficking children.

Rep. Crane: "Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to point out there's no Democrats in the room. You guys notice that the witnesses on the panel today? Mr. Chairman, did you, by chance forget to invite the Democrats to this hearing?"

Subcommittee Chairman Higgins: "Well, sometimes forgetful, sir, but we always officially notify the [minority staff]."

Rep. Crane: "I figured you did, sir."

Subcommittee Chairman Higgins: "They've been invited."

Rep. Crane: "It's weird because there are always the first ones to run to the microphone to talk about illegal immigrants, their children and well-being. Yet when it comes to this topic, they don't want to show up at all. I don't really think they care much. Ms. Hopper, who is profiting the most from these human trafficking operations?"

Ms. Hopper: "It depends on what part of the chain that we're talking about. During the prior administration, I would say a lot of the NGOs that were granted millions and billions of dollars in awards and mishandled these programs and lost hundreds of thousands of children profited greatly. We're still waiting on accountability for those. And I would say the cartels profited greatly. And there is still a consistent demand for sex and labor of these UAC children."

Rep. Crane also asked about pamphlets cartels use to recruit children and concerns that cartels use UACs for organ procurement schemes.

Rep. Crane: "Ms. Hopper, you and your partner in the past have described pamphlets that the cartels had. What information they contain, and what do they reveal about how cartels recruit, transport and ultimately exploit children?"

Ms. Hopper: "The plant the pamphlets include information about NGOs that are friendly to illegal immigrants so that when they get to the border, they're able to reach out to them to access social programs and services. They also include QR codes, often to encrypted telegram channels, where they can tell them specific points of entry and specific sanctuary cities and states that they can go to to seek refuge and access more social programs."

Rep. Crane: "Your work has also raised concerns about organ trafficking and harvesting. What evidence have you encountered supporting those concerns? Are children among the victims? And is there evidence connecting these crimes to trafficking routes into the United States?"

Ms. Hopper: "One of the CJNG cartel members that we interviewed spoke about the unaccompanied alien children and those that were vulnerable and if they needed, in order to fill. No one was going to miss that child. So, they were able to fulfill those orders with those organs. There was another trafficker, Turco, who harvested the eye of a 12-year-old boy for, I believe it was $12,000 or $15,000. And that was also a boy that was on the journey on the way to the United States."

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) inquired about financial transactions from China that are related to child trafficking.

Rep. Perry: "Mr. DeTitto, an analysis and analysis of Bank Secrecy Act reports between 2020 and 2024 identified over 100,000 suspicious activity reports and about $312 billion in suspicious transactions, some of them coming from the Communist Party of China. Can you kind of draw or lay a trail of crumbs for us about where that money is going, and if it has anything to do with the with child exploitation and child trafficking?"

Mr. DeTitto: "Thank you for the question, sir. To shed a little bit of light on this, much of the reporting is aggregator accounts. So, if you're not familiar with an aggregator account, it is a combination of multiple different crimes, criminal proceeds ending up in the same account. So, we're talking drug trafficking, human trafficking, human smuggling, etc. Investment scam activity is extremely prevalent and weighs heavily in that number, especially right now. So, I would say in my experience, yes, absolutely. The proceeds of human trafficking, illicit massage businesses, human smuggling, network operations, illegal marijuana, marijuana grow operations in the U.S…And it's escalating year over year."

Click here to watch the roundtable.