WASHINGTON, D.C. — Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday accused the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) of acting as a “collaborator” in child trafficking under the Biden administration, calling it the “principal vector” for exploitation of unaccompanied migrant children.
In a public statement, Kennedy alleged that HHS—through its Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which handles unaccompanied minors at the border—enabled trafficking “for sex and for slavery” during President Biden’s term. He added that the current administration under former President Donald Trump, including Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary Kennedy himself, has launched efforts to reverse the damage.
Key Points
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused HHS under Biden of being a “principal vector” for child trafficking.
- HHS oversees ORR, which is responsible for placement of unaccompanied migrant children.
- DHS says nearly 5,000 children have now been reunited with safe guardians under Trump leadership.
“We have ended HHS as the role, as the vector, the principal vector in this country for child trafficking,” Kennedy said. “And we’re very aggressively going out and trying to find these children—300,000 children that were lost by the Biden administration.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) echoed the claim in a statement Tuesday, asserting that under President Trump’s new term, “Secretary Noem and Secretary Kennedy have reunited nearly 5,000 unaccompanied children with a safe relative or guardian.”
The 300,000 figure referenced by Kennedy refers to the estimated number of unaccompanied minors whose status or location became untraceable after being released from HHS custody between 2021 and 2024. Critics of the Biden administration have pointed to reports that ORR lost contact with tens of thousands of children placed with sponsors, raising child safety concerns.
ORR practices under scrutiny
While HHS has denied wrongdoing, bipartisan lawmakers have demanded more transparency and reforms in the way unaccompanied minors are vetted and placed. A 2023 New York Times investigation found numerous cases where migrant children ended up in exploitative labor conditions after being placed with sponsors without proper follow-up.
The Trump administration previously faced criticism for separating families at the border in 2018, leading to its own child reunification efforts. Kennedy and Noem now claim those policies have been revised to both protect borders and safeguard minors from trafficking networks.
HHS and ORR have not yet issued a public response to the new accusations.
RFK Jr. claims 300,000 migrant children were lost under Biden as Trump officials seek to find them.