In the history of American governance, few chapters will stain the pages as darkly as the utter failure of the Biden-Harris administration to safeguard unaccompanied migrant children. I must ask this question: If their goal was to intentionally traffic children into sexual slavery and forced labor, how would their actions have been any different?

For four catastrophic years, vulnerable minors poured across the Rio Grande and were funneled into a system riddled with incompetence, willful blindness, and flat-out negligence. A report from the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) landed like a bomb and exposed the tragedy: the administration lost track of over 320,000 of these children, releasing them to unvetted sponsors without so much as a whisper of accountability. These were terrified kids, fleeing poverty or violence, only to vanish into the shadows of sex trafficking, forced labor, and unimaginable abuse.

I must also ask this question: Why would parents send unaccompanied minor children on a trip across hundreds or thousands of miles, knowing the likelihood that they would be raped, otherwise abused, and forced into slavery? Were they greasing the skids for chain migration?

The human cost defies comprehension. Young girls, 16 years old or younger, drugged and pimped out by alleged "brothers" or "uncles."  This was the very definition of dereliction of duty that prioritized open borders over innocent lives.

HHS stripped away rigorous vetting at the onset of Biden's "reign of error," opting for phone calls instead of in-person checks, permitting non-family sponsors -- many hosting multiple children -- to whisk away minors unchecked. Addresses provided to ICE were wrong 80% of the time, incomplete for over 31,000 kids, or downright fictional. 34 children were dumped at two nonexistent locations by one field office alone. Even worse, a 2021 interagency pact handcuffed information-sharing, blocking DHS from sponsor biometrics to shield potential criminals from scrutiny.

Law enforcement officers likened prying data from HHS to "pulling teeth," as bureaucrats fretted over deporting sponsors with rap sheets or immigration status because... racism. The result? Over 233,000 children unenrolled in immigration proceedings since January 2021, plus 43,000 no-shows in court -- prime targets for cartels surging in trafficking.

Whistleblowers like Tara Rodas, a former HHS recruit, exposed the horror: handing kids to "traffickers, members of transnational criminal organizations, bad, bad, bad people."

In a final insult, the administration's vaunted safety hotline for these kids ignored 65,000 desperate calls from August 2023 to January 2025 -- pleas that spanned complaints about "stale bread" to nightly assaults by adult men in bedrooms. Of course, it was hard to answer all those calls when there was only a single staffer assigned to the task! One boy's unanswered cries for help were finally reviewed after Trump took office and led to his rescue and his sponsor's arrest.

As with so many Democrat-run operations, fraud was rampant. Over $6 billion flowed to NGOs like Endeavors and Southwest Key, whose revenues exploded from $52 million to $1.18 billion in two years, with CEO pay doubling. These "nonprofits", 97-99% federally funded, became enablers: hiring staff without background checks, letting men roam female dorms, and even staging sexually explicit "twerking" lessons for teen girls.

They shuttled minors to flights like unwitting and unwilling cargo, while 80% of sheltered women bore scars of cartel rapes en route. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley hammered home the point: Biden's crew chose "speed and optics" over safety, releasing 24,100 kids to high-risk distant relatives or strangers in gang-infested motels. His referrals sparked 102 investigations and pierced the veil of secrecy.

Meanwhile, the Democrats maintained a stunning silence -- a void where outrage should have thundered. No fiery speeches for the lost; no knees taken in Emancipation Hall, no demands for reform. Instead, they doubled down on the very policies that unleashed this nightmare, shielding illegal aliens and the criminal networks that preyed on these innocents. Their "compassion" rings hollow when it excuses the traffickers and the NGOs fattening off federal largesse. Even as Grassley's probes exposed the firewall of secrecy, the Left blocked bills to protect these children from sexual harm. The Left’s new agenda: empathy for invaders and indifference to the victims they devour.

The NGOs were the shadowy middlemen in this tragedy, flush with taxpayer dollars yet entangled in political webs that may explain the hush. From 2021 to 2024, the federal government funneled over $10 billion in grants to immigration nonprofits for UAC services -- Catholic Charities alone pocketed $2 billion, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) $221 million in FY2023, and HIAS $40.9 million.

The quid pro quo whispers grow louder when you follow the money to campaigns. OpenSecrets data shows Catholic Charities affiliates and employees donated over $141,000 in the 2024 cycle, 95% to Democrats -- $22,305 across 40 blue lawmakers versus a pittance to Republicans.

As a Catholic, I am disgusted and scandalized.

Broader "professional Catholic" networks skewed 99% Democratic, per a 2024 Lepanto Institute analysis, fueling PACs like Immigrants' List that poured millions into pro-open-border candidates. Even ostensibly neutral groups like US Immigration Fund funneled $272,400 in 2024, with chunks to Democratic leaders like Hakeem Jeffries ($15,000).

This financial symbiosis breeds silence: Lawmakers reliant on NGO lobbying ($730 million spent on immigration issues since 2008) hesitate to bite the hand that funds their reelection. Between January 2023 and April 2024, U.S. political campaigns collected around $8.6 billion

Democrats, the primary beneficiaries, shield the system that sustains their base's priorities; Republicans grandstand but lacked the votes for reform until now. Children are lost not just to traffickers, but to a political machine greased by grants and gratitude.

Enter President Trump and his unyielding Border Czar, Tom Homan -- a Hercules for our time, slaying the bureaucratic dragons Biden left in his wake. Since Inauguration Day, Trump's iron-fisted enforcement has sealed the border: zero releases in seven months, 579,000 removals, and 2.2 million total departures -- the most secure frontier in history. But the real miracle? Over 62,400 missing children -- Biden's castoffs, ignored and untracked -- now found and freed.

Homan, eyes glued to daily tallies, revealed on Fox News: “Over 62,000 children, found by the Trump administration. Children that weren’t even being looked for under the Biden administration. President Trump saved over 62,000 children’s lives.” Sex trafficking rings dismantled, forced labor camps raided, horrors too vile for airwaves unearthed. On X, Homan hailed the unsung heroes of HHS, ICE, and FBI: “They will not stop until we run down every lead on every missing child.” Trump's no-nonsense leadership -- requiring no new laws, just resolve -- has slashed crossings to zero, starving the cartels and reclaiming the innocent.

This is redemption in action: from Biden's abyss of nearly a half million ghosts to Trump's tally of triumphs. Yet the scars linger, a grim testament to leftist priorities. As Homan put it, Trump proves daily "why he's the greatest president in my lifetime."

American laws changed after the murders of Amber Hagerman and Megan Kanka. Shouldn’t there be a response for these 300,000 souls? The silence must end -- not with hearings, but with handcuffs on the enablers. All of them.

Until then, America's moral compass spins in the dark.

Image: Easy-peasy AI