Administration Official Admits That Unaccompanied Minors Crossing Border Aren’t Checked for Criminal Records

The Biden administration’s lax immigration policy is causing a surge in unaccompanied children crossing the southern border without being adequately vetted, according to a new congressional report.

The number of unaffiliated minors encountered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) surged to 137,275 in fiscal year 2023, over 100,000 more than fiscal year 2020, according to an interim report released Monday by the House Judiciary Committee.

The committee’s report details the spike in unaccompanied minors entering the U.S. illegally, particularly teen boys, and the Biden administration’s failure to implement reforms to ensure that gang-affiliated minors are not being released into the country.

The number of unaccompanied minors referred to the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is surging at a similar pace, the data shows. In fiscal year 2023, nearly 70 percent of the unaccompanied minors were age 15 or older, and 61 percent of the unaccompanied minors were boys.

Refugee resettlement director Robin Dunn Marcos admitted to the committee last June that unaccompanied minors are not examined for gang tattoos, and the ORR lacks facilities designed to place those with criminal records.

Dunn Marcos was also unaware of any actions by HHS to determine whether an unaccompanied minor has a criminal record in the U.S., and she confirmed that HHS does not request their criminal records from their home countries.

“Does ORR ask UACs [unaccompanied alien children] whether they have a criminal record in the U.S.?” Dunn Marcos was asked. “Not that I’m aware of,” she responded.

She answered similarly to later questioning about requesting criminal records from the unaccompanied minors’ home countries.

“So ORR does not request the criminal record in the home country from the consulate?”

“We do not.”

Moreover, Dunn Marcos had no knowledge of any internal database of gang affiliates in the Office of Refugee Resettlement program or HHS efforts to determine whether unaccompanied minors are affiliated with gangs.

“But it’s not the policy of ORR to ask the UAC if they have gang affiliation or gang ties?”

“I do not recall that specifically. By Congress, our authorities are to care for every child that is referred to us by a Federal entity, or by CBP, and that’s what we do,” she replied.

“I understand that it’s the safety and well being of each child. It doesn’t seem like the safety and well being of non gang member UACs would be adequate, if you didn’t know that there were also gang affiliated UACs in your custody. Do you have a system or a database to track gang affiliation or gang vulnerable UACs for ORR?” she was asked.

“Not that I’m aware of,” she said.

The HHS told the Judiciary Committee after a subpoena that it does not have a policy of referring unaccompanied minors affiliated with gangs to the Justice Department for criminal investigation.

Similarly, the report notes the Department of Health and Human Services’ failure to sufficiently ensure gang-affiliated teenage boys are not entering the U.S., citing the brutal sexual assault and murder of 20-year-old Kayla Hamilton in 2022 by a 17-year-old gang-affiliated illegal immigrant from El Salvador.

The illegal immigrant’s case file showed he was arrested in El Salvador for apparent affiliation with the MS-13 gang, an affiliation not discovered by U.S. law enforcement until after Hamilton’s murder. He appeared to have gang-affiliated tattoos, a detail DHS and HHS apparently failed to notice.

HHS did not audit the murder of Kayla Hamilton, despite indicating that the department did so, the Judiciary Committee discovered.

Under Secretary Xavier Becerra, HHS also reduced background-check requirements for potential sponsors of the unaccompanied minors, leading to children illegally being placed in dangerous jobs and being exploited, the report observes.

In April, HHS issued a final rule on its unaccompanied-minor releases, and the report deems its guidelines insufficient to prevent the release of potentially gang-affiliated unaccompanied minors into the U.S. after they cross the southern border.

Over the weekend, a 23-year-old Salvadoran illegal immigrant was arrested for investigation of the rape and murder of Rachel Morin, a mother of five who was killed on a hike last year. The suspect is also connected to a home invasion and assault of a nine-year-old girl in Los Angeles last year, and is accused of killing a woman in his home country.