HHS faces fire as Kennedy spells out 300,000 missing children crisis,

HHS faces fire as Kennedy spells out 300,000 missing children crisis

• HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced an urgent effort to locate 300,000–500,000 migrant children who vanished from federal custody under Biden-era policies, calling it a humanitarian and trafficking crisis.
• Under prior leadership, HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) failed to conduct proper background checks on sponsors, including address verification or criminal history reviews, enabling exploitation by trafficking networks.
• Critics (including former DHS officials) blame Biden’s "open-border" policies for overwhelming ORR, while Republicans frame the crisis as a "crime against humanity." Democrats push for transparency via congressional oversight.
• New measures include stricter sponsor vetting and partnerships with law enforcement, but advocates argue progress (e.g., 5,000 children reunited) is insufficient. Rights groups warn stricter rules may deter legitimate sponsors.
• Missing children are linked to forced labor, sex trafficking and criminal networks, per DOJ reports. The crisis fuels 2026 election debates, with calls for accountability and systemic overhauls beyond partisan divides.

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. revealed Wednesday that his agency is launching an “aggressive” operation to locate approximately 300,000 migrant children who vanished from federal custody under the Biden administration. Kennedy accused predecessors of prioritizing border openness over child safety, enabling human trafficking networks to exploit minors funneled through HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). At a cabinet meeting, Kennedy declared, “During the Biden administration, HHS became a collaborator in child trafficking and for sex, and for slavery…We have ended that.” His statements underscore a deepening political and humanitarian crisis, amplified by reports that hundreds more minors slip from government oversight daily.

The urgent recovery effort follows a damning legacy of systemic failures in sponsor screening and follow-up, as highlighted by a 2023 New York Times investigation and internal studies. Critics argue the prior administration’s lax protocols — failing to verify sponsor addresses or run criminal background checks — created conditions for minors to vanish into trafficking or forced-labor networks. With no comprehensive tracking system, estimates of missing children range from 300,000 to 500,000, a figure Kennedy calls “a stark reminder of what happens when vetting policies collapse.”

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