Trump Administration Reports Finding Over 15,500 'Super Sponsors' in Migrant Child Sponsorship System

At a Thursday press conference, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, and acting Office of Refugee Resettlement Director Angie Salazar announced that federal agents have located approximately 146,000 of the roughly 450,000–475,000 unaccompanied migrant children who entered the U.S. during the Biden administration, with nearly 300,000 still unaccounted for. Officials said the ORR under Biden released children to sponsors who were rarely seen in person, with over 76,000 missing mandatory safety checks and more than 97,000 cases lacking background checks. Blanche announced indictments against three Guatemalan nationals in Ohio — Maritza Azucena Cahuec Coc, her brother Carlos Agustin Cahuec Coc, and Gladys Marina Caal Chen — accused of fraudulently sponsoring more than a dozen children between 2020 and 2023; a fourth individual, Juan Tiul Xi, received a sentence of over ten years after pleading guilty to smuggling a 14-year-old girl and sexually assaulting her. The administration said it is investigating more than 15,500 'super-sponsor' cases, though the AP noted that sponsoring multiple children is not itself a crime and that some sponsors may be well-intentioned. On the same day, DHS agents visited several Washington, D.C.-area nonprofits providing legal services to unaccompanied children without presenting warrants, drawing concern from advocacy groups who argue the administration's tightened vetting procedures — which have increased average federal custody time from 37 days to over 200 days — are themselves harming children. ORR data shows 468,892 unaccompanied children entered the U.S. between 2021 and 2024, with releases to sponsor families surging nearly 540% in 2021 compared to 2020.