Federal authorities on Thursday charged three Guatemalan nationals living in the U.S. illegally with smuggling more than a dozen unaccompanied migrant children across the southern border during the Biden administration, the Justice Department announced.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

"More than 475,000 unaccompanied children entered the United States during the Biden administration," acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said during a news conference. "The way this happened was typically because the criminals calling themselves 'sponsors' trafficked these children to the border, usually committing fraud to do so, and oftentimes the children were abused, assaulted, and certainly exploited."

Republicans in Congress have spotlighted the Biden administration’s handling of unaccompanied migrant children, exposing systemic problems with the rapid release of hundreds of thousands of minors to sponsors and inadequate follow-up that left many unaccounted for.

In 2023, House Oversight Committee Republicans revealed that the Office of Refugee Resettlement lost contact with roughly 85,000 children shortly after placement, with broader estimates of untracked or at-risk minors reaching 150,000 or more amid record surges at the open border.

"I hope every single 1 of my colleagues will applaud Dep Atty Gen Blanche+Scty Mullin's actions 2 find& rescue unaccompanied migrant kids I spent YRS sharing whistleblower evidence of migrant child trafficking w the Biden admin while my Democrat colleagues turned a blind eye," Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley said in an X post.

Rushed vetting, “assembly line” placements and failures to ensure child welfare raised alarms about exploitation and trafficking. 

Republicans introduced legislation to strengthen sponsor screening and post-release monitoring, holding hearings that highlighted humanitarian failures tied to lax border policies.

The issue drew national attention as data showed hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied children processed and released during the administration.