The Department of Homeland Security is pulling back the curtain on widespread abuse and exploitation of unaccompanied minors who crossed the U.S. border during the last administration and were placed with unvetted sponsors.

DHS launched a national child welfare initiative in February to identify and locate at-risk kids who may have been placed with improperly vetted or unvetted sponsors — some of whom had been paid off by smugglers — when they came to the United States.

“Children’s safety and security is non-negotiable,” ICE spokesperson Laszlo Baksay said in a statement. “The previous administration’s failure to implement meaningful safeguards has allowed vulnerable kids to fall into the hands of criminals. Our special agents are working tirelessly to locate these alien children, ensure their protection, and hold accountable those who have abused the system.”

DHS added that since the agency launched its child welfare initiative, officials have discovered sponsors in possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), sponsors who forced minors into labor, and sponsors who subjected children to neglectful living conditions. 

A U.S. Border Patrol agent checks for identification of immigrants as they wait to be processed by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the border from Mexico on Dec. 30, 2022 in Yuma, Arizona.  (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)

ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents have been conducting welfare checks on migrant children who crossed the border unaccompanied. The welfare checks are designed to assess the children’s situations and ensure they are receiving appropriate care and not being abused or trafficked, according to DHS.

A group of 116 illegal immigrants, including 11 unaccompanied children, were apprehended in Eagle Pass, Texas on Wednesday morning. (Texas DPS)

“Our agents are doing what should’ve been done all along: protecting children, not pushing them into the shadows,” Baksay said. “This is the responsibility of any government, Republican or Democrat, but it was the Trump administration that insisted on rigorous sponsor screening and biometric verification. Those guardrails were dismantled, and we’re now seeing the consequences.”

If an ICE HSI officer encounters adults living in the United States illegally, they will take those people into custody and process them for removal, while unaccompanied children living in the United States illegally are transferred to Office of Refugee Resettlement custody, DHS said.

Fox News Digital’s Taylor Penley contributed to this report.