A hearing held this week by the House Committee on Homeland Security revealed that a hotline operated by the Biden-Harris administration to report concerns about unaccompanied migrant children failed to respond to 65,000 calls between August 2023 and January 2025.
The hearing focused on the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the current immigration system and their interaction with federal agencies.
Lawmakers examined how the Biden-Harris administration has managed the care and oversight of unaccompanied migrant minors.
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One of the primary witnesses was Ali Hopper, the founder and president of GUARD Against Trafficking.
Hopper testified that criminal networks have exploited weaknesses within the immigration system, including both federal agencies and NGOs involved in the placement and monitoring of migrant children.
“These agencies have been hijacked by criminal networks,” Hopper told the committee.
She also described widespread mismanagement and lack of accountability across the system.
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Hopper confirmed that the hotline intended to receive reports about unaccompanied migrant children’s welfare was nonfunctional for nearly a year and a half, leaving tens of thousands of calls unanswered.
These calls reportedly ranged from concerns about minor quality-of-life issues to serious allegations of abuse.
Hopper detailed one case where a child placed with a sponsor reported that adult men were entering his room at night and touching him.
That call initially went unanswered like many others. Hopper said the situation was not reviewed until later, and when it was, the child was removed and the sponsor was arrested.
Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ), a member of the committee, criticized the Biden-Harris administration for its handling of the situation.
“Our colleagues are very upset that we’re having this hearing today. They don’t want to talk about this stuff. They don’t want to talk about the 300,000 kids that we still don’t know where they are,” Crane said during the hearing.
“We’re talking about the NGOs that they used as middlemen to carry out their operations.”
Crane cited reports from late 2023 indicating that hundreds of thousands of migrant children placed with adult sponsors had effectively gone missing under federal oversight.
According to a Department of Homeland Security report, 32,000 unaccompanied minors failed to appear for court dates between 2019 and 2023, and an additional 291,000 children transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services never received court notices.
Crane questioned Hopper about the difference in safeguards under the Trump administration compared to the current system.
“Ms. Hopper, you’ve worked closely with trafficking victims and survivors. I’d like to explore the role that the NGOs have played in enabling the trafficking and exploitation of unaccompanied alien children. Under the last administration, what safeguards were put in place to protect vulnerable unaccompanied children?” Crane asked.
Hopper responded that under the prior administration, welfare checks were limited and often ineffective.
“If the sponsor didn’t answer, the case was no longer followed up on,” she said.
However, there was a notice-of-concern hotline where individuals could report safety issues.
That system, she said, went largely unused under the current administration.
Hopper also criticized the vetting process for adult sponsors of unaccompanied children.
“The requirements to adopt a dog that was about to be euthanized were higher than the standards and the documents that needed to be provided for an adult to sponsor a child,” Hopper said, quoting a retired Border Patrol agent.
The hearing concluded with lawmakers calling for increased oversight and reforms to the system used to process, place, and monitor unaccompanied migrant children.
WATCH:
“65,000 calls [to HHS] went unanswered…One case where a child’s call was reporting that grown men were coming into his room at night… That call went unanswered.”@ali_hopper details the Biden administration’s devastating failure to protect unaccompanied alien children: pic.twitter.com/G8GS8JdDYi
— House Homeland GOP (@HomelandGOP) July 16, 2025