Last Wednesday, the House Homeland Security Committee held a hearing to assess the influence and involvement of NGOs in the Biden-era border crisis. The committee examined the trafficking and abuse of unaccompanied alien children (UACs), highlighting the Biden administration’s lack of sufficient oversight in placing these minors and in monitoring federally funded NGOs. The title of the hearing was, “An Inside Job: How NGOs facilitated the Biden Border Crisis.”
By far, the most dramatic testimony from the hearing came during an exchange between Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) and witness Ali Hopper, the president and co-founder of GUARD Against Trafficking. Crane asked Hopper what, if any, guardrails did the Biden administration put in place to monitor the well-being of UACs after they were placed with sponsors.
Hopper replied that the government conducted post-placement welfare checks, which consisted of two phone calls to the sponsor. “If the sponsor didn’t answer, the case was no longer followed up on.”
Additionally, she said that the Biden administration had set up a hotline that UACs could call to report abuse or any other issues they needed help with. She added that because only one employee was available to answer the calls from “August 2023 to January 2025, 65,000 calls went unanswered.”
One of the missed calls, according to Hopper, was from a child who reported that “grown men were coming into his room at night and touching him. Nothing happened with that call. That call went unanswered until this administration [the Trump administration] took office, went through those 65,000 calls, made follow-ups, conducted a welfare check, and now that child has been rescued and that sponsor has been arrested.”
She told Crane, “These are the safeguards that were put in place, but accountability was not had.”
In the clip below, Crane asks Hopper, “So you’re telling this committee that the Biden administration, while they were letting all of these unaccompanied minors into the country—and as we’ve talked about today, they weren’t keeping track of them—they issued these kids a hotline that they could call if they had trouble with the sponsor family that they were put with, and you’re saying that 65,000 calls to this hotline, designated to protect these kids, went unanswered. Is that what you’re telling this committee?”
Hopper replied, “Yes, sir.”
“Wow,” Crane said. “Unbelievable, just unbelievable.”
Hopper’s opening remarks were illuminating. [A full transcript can be viewed here.] She described the systemic neglect of these children by not only the Biden administration, but by the NGOs who were receiving huge paydays from the federal government for their services. Both were failing to deliver for the UACs.
Hopper told the Committee:
Across the country, NGOs became waystations— processing points in a steady flow of children. Federal contracts incentivized output over outcomes, prioritizing speed over safety.And the cartels took full advantage. They studied every gap and exploited them, sending children into a system they knew would fast-track them to cartel-controlled sponsors – without meaningful background checks, with addresses verified through postal databases, and IDs often accepted via WhatsApp or text with no facial match to the sender. This is how 70% of sponsor data became falsified or fraudulent.In interviews with cartel members incarcerated for human trafficking, they explained how weak sponsor verification incentivized trafficking by enabling cartels to control children’s placement by supplying children with exact sponsor information, allowing control over their destination.According to an internal audit conducted by Health and Human Services (HHS), approximately 70% of sponsor applications examined were found to be fraudulent, making child traceability and safety assurances nearly impossible.
Hopper claimed it was easier for a sponsor to take custody of an unaccompanied alien child than it is to adopt a dog. This broken process is the reason why more than 300,000 migrant children are currently unaccounted for.
Democrats have loudly condemned the Trump administration’s efforts to deport illegal immigrants even though most of the individuals who have been deported have criminal records. But their outrage rings hollow when contrasted with the Biden administration’s handling of unaccompanied alien children (UACs). These vulnerable minors were subjected to a system plagued by greed, neglect, mismanagement, and lack of oversight.
It’s impossible to know how many young lives have been ruined by Biden’s reckless open border policy.
Yet the silence from those who claim to champion human rights is deafening. What unfolded under Biden’s watch was not just a policy failure—it was unconscionable.
The full exchange can be viewed below.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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