Rescued From The Shadows, These Children Will Carry Their Trauma That Will Last A Lifetime
Monday, December 22, 2025, 8:00 A.M. ET. 5 Minute Read, Op-Ed, By Jennifer Hodges, Political Editor: Englebrook Independent News,
MANHATTAN, NY.- For the past eight days, I have spent countless hours on the phone with mental-health professionals, trauma counselors, child-advocacy specialists, and immigrant support organizations. I have also visited, quietly and without cameras, just a handful of the children who were finally recovered after vanishing into the shadows of the Biden administration’s open-border policies.
What I saw will never leave me.
From houses that resembled crack dens, to seedy roadside motels, to locations tied to escort operations, to districts represented by some of the loudest voices in Congress on immigration, these children were thrown into lives no child should ever be forced to endure. Their suffering defies comprehension.
These children did not simply “fall through the cracks.” They were swallowed by them.
Every mental-health professional I spoke with said the same thing: if these children can heal at all, it will take years, possibly a lifetime, of intensive, trauma-informed treatment. The psychological injuries inflicted by their so-called sponsors are deep, complex, and in many cases permanent.
There is no finding that former President Biden, his cabinet, or Democratic lawmakers committed crimes. But history will record something just as damning: they turned a blind eye for four years while tens of thousands of children were trafficked, abused, exploited, and scarred for life.
That moral failure cannot be legislated away. And it cannot be forgotten.
When “Rescue” Is Only The Beginning;
When the missing children finally began to be located in 2025, the headlines focused on numbers: how many were found, how many were recovered, how many were returned to custody.
What those numbers concealed was the condition the children were in when they were found.
For many, rescue did not mean relief.
It meant survival after prolonged abuse.
Federal recovery operations confirmed that numerous children were located after enduring:
- Forced labor under threats of violence or abandonment
- Sexual abuse and exploitation, including repeated assaults
- Chronic neglect, malnutrition, and untreated illness
- Psychological torture, isolation, and coercion
- Exposure to violence, drugs, and criminal activity
These were not isolated incidents. They were patterns, repeated across states, cities, and sponsor placements.
What Investigators Found During Welfare Checks;
Because federal law protects the identities of minor victims, names and personal identifiers are withheld. But the facts are documented.
During 2025 welfare checks and trafficking investigations, federal agents confirmed multiple cases where children were found in conditions no government ever should have allowed:
- In New Jersey, minors were discovered living without their sponsor, in unsanitary, rodent-infested housing, reporting physical and sexual abuse and forced labor.
- In Texas, a teenage girl was found pregnant while living with an unrelated adult male who had been approved as her sponsor.
- In Tennessee, siblings were coerced into labor to repay smuggling debts under threat of violence and abandonment.
Each case followed the same path: release without verification, no follow-up, and years of silence.
The Children Who Never Came Back;
Not every child survived long enough to be rescued.
Federal recovery reporting confirms that at least 27 previously missing unaccompanied minors were found dead after being released into the interior of the United States. Causes included overdose, suicide, homicide, medical neglect, and violence linked to exploitation.
There are no public names.
There are no press conferences.
There are only closed files and grieving families.
Each death represents a child who crossed into America alive and died after the government stopped watching.
What Trauma Looks Like Up Close;
Mental-health professionals who now work with recovered children describe a level of trauma rarely seen outside war zones:
- Severe post-traumatic stress disorder
- Night terrors and dissociation
- Attachment disorders and inability to trust adults
- Self-harm and suicidal ideation
- Extreme anxiety around authority figures
- Long-term developmental regression
Several clinicians told me bluntly: Some of these children will never fully recover.
This is not a short-term crisis. It is a lifelong sentence imposed by neglect.
The Second Betrayal: Silence;
Perhaps the cruelest aspect of this crisis is how quietly it unfolded.
Warnings were issued.
Oversight reports were filed.
Red flags were raised.
Yet for years, the suffering of these children barely registered in Washington. No emergency hearings. No sustained outrage. No accountability.
Only now, after tens of thousands have been found broken, does the nation begin to reckon with what happened.
America’s Obligation Does Not End At Rescue;
Finding these children was necessary.
It was not enough.
If this country is serious about justice, it must now confront what it allowed to happen:
- Long-term mental-health care for every recovered child
- Permanent monitoring and protection
- Full transparency into sponsor approvals
- Accountability for systemic negligence
- A commitment that speed will never again replace safety
Because these children were not statistics.
They were lives.
And many of them will carry the damage forever.
Editor’s Note:
This Op-Ed is based on eight days of reporting by Jennifer Hodges, including interviews with mental-health professionals, immigrant advocacy groups, and on-the-ground visits with recovered minors, as well as verified federal recovery and welfare-check reporting from 2025. Individual identities are withheld to protect victims. There is no finding of criminal conduct by former President Biden or Democratic officials; however, the documented failures outlined here reflect a systemic breakdown that allowed widespread exploitation and lifelong harm. Jennifer Hodges, Political Editor, Englebrook Independent News.
