OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
11:30 AM – Friday, October 2, 2026
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) has uncovered six forms of fraud in the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) Program under the previous administration of former President Joe Biden.
On Thursday, the ORR released a memorandum detailing its findings concerning the following types of fraud:
- False or fraudulent documentation of identity;
- Manipulated photographs;
- Misrepresented or unverifiable addresses;
- Fingerprint-related fraud;
- Failure to disclose household members;
- Misrepresentation of age by UAC.
The ORR’s assessment found fraud by actual and potential sponsors, individuals in ORR custody and individuals in their country of origin. It noted that some cases were identified in which a sponsor’s “fraudulent documents or false information contributed to unaccompanied minors being released into unsafe situations, resulting in abuse — and, in rare instances, death.”
“The Biden Administration failed in its most basic responsibility: protecting vulnerable children in federal care,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “It weakened safeguards and prioritized speed over scrutiny, leaving children exposed to fraud, exploitation, and abuse. Under President Trump, HHS is restoring rigorous oversight, verifying who takes custody of these children, and putting their safety first. We will hold this system accountable and never sacrifice a child’s safety for bureaucratic convenience.”
The ORR is responsible for caring for unaccompanied minors who arrive at the southern or northern borders of the U.S., including vetting potential sponsors before releasing a child to their care.
“With a sharp increase in UAC referrals during the Biden Administration starting in 2021, ORR relaxed certain sponsor vetting policies and expedited the releases of UAC. In Fiscal Year 2024, ORR denied less than 1% of sponsorship applications,” the HHS explained in a press release.
The ORR found that under the Biden administration, the average rate of intentional document fraud remained at about 77%. The office received 1,669 reports of fraud between October 1, 2023 and October 31, 2024, and reviewed a subset of these reports. Of those reviewed, the office identified that approximately 85% involved intentional document fraud.
The HHS noted one example in which a minor was harmed by the previous administration’s handling of their case.
In August 2023, the ORR released a 15-year-old girl to a male sponsor who claimed to be her biological brother without even requesting fingerprints or DNA to verify the relationship. Two months later, according to the HHS, “authorities determined that the sponsor was not related to the UAC and had allegedly raped and impregnated her.” The sponsor was later charged and is under investigation.
In another tragic case in July 2024, the ORR reportedly released a 17-year-old boy to a sponsor who claimed to be his stepsister based on “Venezuelan documents that HHS could not authenticate.” Three months later, the minor was “found dead in the back seat of a car, with his genitalia exposed, along with an unconscious 30-year-old male.”
“Heightened scrutiny and better vetting practices could have prevented the fraud that led to the violent abuse of these minors. All it would have taken was a willingness to slow down and follow policies requiring heightened scrutiny,” stated ORR Senior Advisor John Fabbricatore in a video announcement.
“Thanks to the leadership of President [Donald] Trump and Secretary Kennedy, ORR has spent the past year-and-a-half locating 157,000 of these children and making sure they are safe,” he added. “We continue searching for over 85,000 missing minors.”
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