Whistleblowers say U.S. government's poor oversight may have led to migrant kids' working in unsafe and illegal jobs

A watchdog representing federal whistleblowers says poor oversight at HHS may have led to unaccompanied migrant children working in unsafe, illegal conditions.

A watchdog group representing federal whistleblowers raised new concerns to Congress on Wednesday about the performance of the Health and Human Services Department, the agency tasked with sheltering unaccompanied migrant children after they cross the border, saying poor oversight may have led to children working in unsafe and illegal conditions inside the United States.

HHS finds homes for unaccompanied minors, sending them to live with adult sponsors who may be relatives or family friends. In the report, submitted to HHS and Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, D.-Ill., the Government Accountability Project said whistleblowers it represents allege the agency’s case management system may have failed to match all children with thoroughly vetted sponsors and did not track the children properly after they left government care.

The whistleblowers are federal workers who were detailed to work at an emergency site in Fort Bliss, Texas, in spring and summer 2021, early in the Biden administration, when the number of migrant children crossing the border without a parent or guardian rose sharply. Many of the previously publicly disclosed concerns dealt with living conditions, the spread of Covid, incompetent management and sexual misconduct. 

Though the Biden administration says it has since improved the case management process, the whistleblowers say the problems they saw in early- to mid-2021 may have let children go to homes in which adults would either force or allow them to work in unsafe environments like slaughterhouses.

The report sent to HHS on Wednesday said whistleblowers worry problems in the system at Fort Bliss led to “egregious errors in discharge procedures.”