HHS Memo Lists Six Fraud Patterns in Biden Unaccompanied-Child Releases

The Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday released a memorandum identifying six forms of fraud in the Unaccompanied Alien Children program as it operated under the Biden administration, and said some of that fraud put children into homes where they were abused or, in rare cases, died.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement and the HHS Office of the General Counsel said the fraud was committed by actual and potential sponsors, by people in federal custody, and by people in countries of origin. Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the prior administration “weakened safeguards and prioritized speed over scrutiny, leaving children exposed to fraud, exploitation, and abuse.”

When an unaccompanied minor arrives at the southern or northern border, Homeland Security refers the child to ORR. In most cases ORR is supposed to vet the sponsor before release. From 2021 to 2024, about 479,000 children were referred. As referrals surged in 2021, ORR relaxed sponsor checks and sped releases. In fiscal 2024, the office denied less than 1 percent of sponsorship applications.

A 2025 review ordered by current HHS leadership looked at child-level event cases from the previous administration. ORR data showed intentional documentation fraud at about 77 percent of reported child-level events, regardless of how many children were involved. Between Oct. 1, 2023, and Oct. 31, 2024, ORR received 1,669 fraud-related child-level reports. Counsel reviewed a subset and found that about 85 percent involved intentional document fraud.

The types listed in the department’s release were false or fraudulent identity documents, manipulated photographs, misrepresented or unverifiable addresses, failure to disclose household members, and misrepresentation of age by the child. A separate Just the News account of the memo also listed fingerprint-related fraud among the six patterns described by counsel and ORR.

The memo cites two cases. In August 2023, ORR released a 15-year-old girl to a sponsor who said he was her biological brother. The office did not request fingerprints or DNA. In October 2023, authorities determined he was not related and had allegedly raped and impregnated her. HHS said the sponsor has been charged by the state and the case remains under investigation. In July 2024, ORR released a 17-year-old boy to a sponsor who claimed to be his stepsister and who presented Venezuelan documents the department could not authenticate. In October 2024, the boy was found dead in the back seat of a car, with his genitalia exposed, next to an unconscious 30-year-old man.

The general counsel’s review concluded that stronger identity checks might have stopped some of the fraud and reduced the risk to children. Kennedy said the department under President Trump is “verifying who takes custody of these children” and “will never sacrifice a child’s safety for bureaucratic convenience.”

The findings sit next to, and are separate from, this week’s inspector-general report on error rates in Afghan asylum files under Operation Allies Welcome. That review concerned asylum adjudications. This memorandum concerns the sponsor pipeline for children who arrived alone. Both point to the same operating choice in 2021–2024: move files faster, check less.

ORR Senior Advisor John Fabbricatore, on a call described by The Federalist, said the fraud “should have been caught by the Biden administration easily” and that the priority was “to get these kids out the door as quick as possible.” The HHS release itself does not use the word smuggling. It does say fraudulent sponsor papers contributed to releases into unsafe situations, “resulting in abuse — and, in rare instances, death.”

The full memorandum is posted through the Administration for Children and Families. HHS said the complete document is available with the Thursday release.