{"id":1628392,"date":"2022-08-31T13:33:02","date_gmt":"2022-08-31T17:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1628392"},"modified":"2022-08-31T13:33:55","modified_gmt":"2022-08-31T17:33:55","slug":"whistleblower-illegal-immigrant-children-being-placed-with-strangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/whistleblower-illegal-immigrant-children-being-placed-with-strangers\/","title":{"rendered":"Whistleblower: Illegal Immigrant Children Being Placed With Strangers"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhistleblower-illegal-immigrant-children-being-placed-with-strangers%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1628392&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Unaccompanied children who cross the U.S. border alone are potentially being placed in dangerous situations due to the lax vetting of the adults they\u2019re being handed off to, says a whistleblower who works with a company that transports the minors around the United States.<\/p>\n<p>An unaccompanied child who crossed the U.S. border illegally without a parent or guardian is processed by Border Patrol and then transferred to Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS\u2019s Office of Refugee Resettlement is responsible for placing the child with a vetted sponsor in the United States\u2014usually a parent or relative, but not always, says the whistleblower.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no proper vetting right now saying, \u2018Hey, these kids are really related to this person.\u2019 No. That could be a child offender, sex offender wanting to take one of these kids into their homes\u2014and the government will let it happen,\u201d the whistleblower <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=B2IU9FvIJtc\">told Savanah Hernandez,<\/a> a Texas-based reporter who runs a podcast called Rapid Fire.<\/p>\n<p>The whistleblower alleges in the interview that he works for MVM, Inc., a Virginia-based private security company that contracts with the federal government to escort children throughout the United States from border regions.<\/p>\n<p>He estimates the company is currently transporting between 2,000 and 5,000 children every week from Texas to sponsors around the country. They often travel at night and to small, regional airports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat way no one sees us,\u201d he said. \u201cWe try to avoid the public.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Overwhelming Influx<\/h2>\n<p>HHS started releasing data on the number of unaccompanied minors it was housing in March 2021 as the volume overwhelmed border facilities, which aren\u2019t designed as shelters for children.<\/p>\n<p>By April last year more than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/number-of-detained-unaccompanied-minors-tops-20000_3779463.html\">20,000 children<\/a> were in HHS custody at one time, waiting for sponsor placement\u2014at a taxpayer cost of at least <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us-spending-tens-of-millions-per-week-on-unaccompanied-minors_3775392.html\">$60 million<\/a> per week.<\/p>\n<p>HHS had to open several emergency holding centers, including converted convention centers in Dallas, San Antonio, and San Diego, military bases in border states, and structures in interior states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis Administration\u2019s goal is to move unaccompanied minors who arrive at our borders out of DHS [Department of Homeland Security] custody and into HHS facilities, and ultimately place them with vetted family members or sponsors as quickly and safely as possible,\u201d HHS states in an email accompanying its statistics.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4701463\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy size-medium wp-image-4701463\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1311821273-600x402-1.jpeg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"402\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4701463\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1311821273-600x402-1.jpeg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"402\" \/><\/noscript><\/noscript> Unaccompanied minors wait to be processed by Border Patrol agents near the U.S.\u2013Mexico border in La Joya, Texas, on April 10, 2021. (John Moore\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Once in HHS custody, an unaccompanied child will provide a caseworker with the name and contact for their sponsor and the worker will reach out to the sponsor to verify him or her, the whistleblower said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen they look into the person, if they see they\u2019re not related, they don\u2019t care, don\u2019t prove it. And they send the kid off to this person. And the sponsor will tell us, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m not a family member, I\u2019m not the kid\u2019s father, I\u2019m not the kid\u2019s mother, I\u2019m not blood-related,&#8217;\u201d the whistleblower said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just a friend. And it makes you wonder, what do you mean just a friend? Who are you?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut we\u2019re not allowed to bring these things up. As long as it\u2019s a person who shows up and gives you the proper documentation, we leave the child.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said the children tell him they meet their sponsor through Facebook, or a social media app.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast week a co-worker had to take a teenage girl with a male sponsor in his 40s that they had never met before. Only FaceTime a couple times while she was in the [HHS] shelter,\u201d the whistleblower told The Epoch Times via Hernandez on Aug. 25.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChild sex trafficking is the number one thing we all fear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In another case, a woman in her 30s came to pick up two unrelated boys in San Antonio.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey still somehow have the same sponsor. And you know, things run through your head and you\u2019re like, \u2018Hey, they\u2019re not related. How did they meet?&#8217;\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we first started doing this, they were always family members. And a lot of times now, kids will say\u2014or we find out ourselves\u2014that they\u2019re not related.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the beginning, we can easily tell that it was the family, because they would cry, they would hug them. But now it\u2019s no more crying, no more hugging, it\u2019s just \u2018Hey, I\u2019m here to pick you up.\u2019 And that\u2019s it. They won\u2019t look at the kid. They will be upset that they have to show up to the airport.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The whistleblower said workers such as him can alert their supervisor at MVM if they think a sponsor isn\u2019t suitable or properly vetted, but \u201cthey hardly ever listen to our concerns when it comes to sponsors. They like to remind us our job is to escort and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>MVM told The Epoch Times that \u201cany questions about the vetting of families or sponsors should be directed to the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>HHS didn\u2019t respond to questions from The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4701464\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy size-medium wp-image-4701464\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1314539753-600x403-1.jpeg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"403\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4701464\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1314539753-600x403-1.jpeg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"403\" \/><\/noscript> A 10-year-old unaccompanied alien minor from Honduras speaks with a flight attendant while flying to join her extended family in southern Indiana from near Louisville, Ky., on April 23, 2021. (John Moore\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In a daily statistics email, HHS states that \u201cin more than 80 percent of cases\u201d the child has a family member in the United States and \u201cin more than 40 percent of cases that family member is a parent or legal guardian.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>HHS outlines on its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/uac-program-fact-sheet.pdf\">website<\/a> that sponsors are required to undergo a background check and a criminal public records check, \u201cand in most cases, a sex offender registry check.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sponsors who are unrelated to the child or not immediate family members, are also fingerprinted, according to the policy.<\/p>\n<p>The agency states that it sometimes also conducts checks on other adults living in the household.<\/p>\n<p>Once a child is placed with a sponsor, he or she then goes through immigration proceedings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt first it was going great. But ever since the Biden administration, as time\u2019s gone by, it\u2019s just too\u2026 It\u2019s a mess. There\u2019s no way of explaining what\u2019s going on here except that it\u2019s a big mess,\u201d the whistleblower said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe kids will say, \u2018Hey, they promised us $2,000 after two or three months of being with my sponsor, and I can\u2019t wait till they buy me this with that money.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The rise in the number of unaccompanied minors raises concerns over a repeat of a 2014 incident in which HHS\u2019s Office of Refugee Resettlement placed eight children into the hands of traffickers, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/feds-not-doing-enough-to-keep-unaccompanied-minors-safe-report_2641050.html\">report<\/a> by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, released in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe traffickers put the children into forced labor on an egg farm in Marion, Ohio,\u201d the report states. \u201cThe children worked for no pay for 12 hours a day, six to seven days a week, and lived in deplorable conditions. The traffickers threatened them and their families with violence if the children did not comply with them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The traffickers lured the children into the United States over a four-month period, with promises of education and a better life, according to the report.<\/p>\n<h2>Unaccompanied Minors<\/h2>\n<p>The Biden administration has been criticized for fueling a rush to the border after quickly rescinding many of the measures the Trump administration had put in place to stem illegal immigration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Biden-Harris Administration is committed to implementing an immigration system that is humane, orderly and lawful. The Administration is monitoring the border and marshalling all corners of the government to find compassionate and fair solutions,\u201d an email from HHS states.<\/p>\n<p>Since President Joe Biden took office, the number of unaccompanied children apprehended at the border jumped to almost five times the number encountered in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Border Patrol agents have apprehended a record-breaking more than 257,000 unaccompanied children at the border from January 2021 up through July 2022.<\/p>\n<p>The vast majority (80 percent) are from the Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbp.gov\/newsroom\/stats\/southwest-land-border-encounters\">data<\/a> from Customs and Border Protection (CBP).<\/p>\n<p>Mexican nationals make up 15 percent of the unaccompanied minor population, and the remainder hail from other countries that CBP doesn\u2019t identify on its website. Two-thirds of unaccompanied minors are male and 72 percent are aged 15, 16, or 17, according to HHS <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acf.hhs.gov\/orr\/about\/ucs\/facts-and-data\">data.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Most often, the child\u2019s parents are already living illegally in the United States and they\u2019ve paid a smuggler to bring their child across the border.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe kids tell us about it all the time. We heard a story last week where a sponsor had to pay double so they wouldn\u2019t rape their niece,\u201d the whistleblower said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy size-medium wp-image-4701463\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1311821273-600x402-1.jpeg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"402\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy size-medium wp-image-4701463\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1311821273-600x402-1.jpeg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"402\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4701463\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1311821273-600x402-1.jpeg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"402\" \/><\/noscript><\/noscript> Unaccompanied minors wait to be processed by Border Patrol agents near the U.S.\u2013Mexico border in La Joya, Texas, on April 10, 2021. (John Moore\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The whistleblower said the increased number of unaccompanied children requiring transport around the country has also meant MVM has rushed its hiring process.<\/p>\n<p>He said some new employees don\u2019t undergo a background check until months after they\u2019ve been hired. It took more than six months for his own background check to be completed, the whistleblower said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of people get hired and their background hasn\u2019t even come in yet. They\u2019ll get emails a month or two months into the job saying \u2018Hey, you need to do your background,&#8217;\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s crazy because [they] could be a child offender, could be a bad person. And they have access to kids every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>MVM responded to the allegations about delayed background checks, saying they\u2019re \u201csimply false.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRegarding our personnel, all our employees are vetted, including background checks, and trained prior to beginning work,\u201d MVM stated in an email to The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<p>MVM is currently listing 117 job openings on LinkedIn, mostly in border regions, but is also looking for bilingual (Spanish) speakers for case management jobs in Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Denver, Miami, and Orlando.<\/p>\n<p>The whistleblower said MVM employees have also been handing over children to adults who aren\u2019t the designated sponsor on the paperwork provided by HHS.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese kids are being sent off with neighbors, with people who are nowhere near related to these kids,\u201d he said, \u201cBecause the sponsor didn\u2019t feel like going.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A supervisor from MVM recently emailed a reminder to employees to ensure children are only being given to designated sponsors and that their identification is checked properly, according to the email provided by the whistleblower and reviewed by Hernandez.<\/p>\n<p>In response to this allegation, MVM told The Epoch Times, \u201cIn carrying out this responsibility, we follow rigorous protocols to ensure the safety of all individuals temporarily in our care, including verifying the identity of all sponsors prior to the transfer of custody.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Not Children<\/h2>\n<p>Border Patrol agents in Texas\u2019s El Paso region have discovered more than 665 adult illegal aliens who tried to pose as unaccompanied minors to gain expedited entry into the United States in the past 10 months, according to CBP.<\/p>\n<p>Often, the adults will have fake documents showing their age as a minor. El Paso agents <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbp.gov\/newsroom\/local-media-release\/unaccompanied-child-imposters-identified-el-paso\">recently apprehended<\/a> seven adults aged from 19 to 26 who tried to pass as children.<\/p>\n<p>The whistleblower said he transports minors that look like adults and he\u2019s told by other children that they lied about their age.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no way of knowing, a lot of the times they got more facial hair than I do. They got tattoos,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of the times the kids will tell us that they threw their papers away [before crossing the U.S.\u2013Mexico border] because they stand a better chance of coming into the country without their papers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>HHS discovered 105 children the agency later determined were actually adults during fiscal year 2021, according to its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/fy21-uc-cr-reporting-requirement-transfers-referrals.pdf\">website.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Unaccompanied children are currently in HHS custody for an average of four weeks before they\u2019re handed over to a sponsor. Children are accommodated in one of approximately 200 state-licensed facilities and programs in 22 states.<\/p>\n<p>During the past two years, almost 30,000 unaccompanied minors have been placed with sponsors in Texas, while Florida and California received more than 20,000 minors each, according to HHS <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acf.hhs.gov\/orr\/grant-funding\/unaccompanied-children-released-sponsors-state\">data.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>During the same period, between 10,000 and 14,800 unaccompanied children have been placed in each of New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and Maryland.<\/p>\n<p>In fiscal year 2021, $2.14 billion was transferred to the unaccompanied minor program within HHS, according to the agency\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/fy21-uc-cr-reporting-requirement-transfers-referrals.pdf\">website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-charlottec\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/15f6652ddfc277df_ttl7dayukw_WEB_CharlotteCuthbertson-1.jpg\" alt=\"Charlotte Cuthbertson\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"names\">\n<p>Senior Reporter<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bio\">Charlotte Cuthbertson is a senior reporter with The Epoch Times who primarily covers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-border-security\">border security<\/a> and the opioid crisis.<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unaccompanied children who cross the U.S. border alone are potentially being placed in dangerous situations due to the lax vetting of the adults they\u2019re being handed off to, says a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1628394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1628392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1628392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1628394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1628392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1628392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1628392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}