The Department of Justice (DOJ) is preparing to prosecute a Guatemalan national accused of using fake identities to gain custody of unaccompanied migrant children through the federal sponsorship system, according to a June 4 report from The Free Press.
The case could offer new details on how alleged weaknesses in the federal vetting system for sponsors of unaccompanied migrant children allowed adults to obtain custody of minors by making false claims about their identities or family relationships, endangering thousands of children.
According to The Free Press, federal prosecutors recently filed a criminal complaint in an Ohio federal court against Maritza Azucena Cahuec Coc, accusing her of filling out fraudulent sponsorship applications for unaccompanied migrant children to facilitate their entry into the U.S. An indictment is expected within the next two weeks, according to a source familiar with the matter whom the outlet cited.
The Free Press, citing the criminal complaint, reported that federal authorities discovered a Facebook account that Cahuec Coc and a co-conspirator allegedly used to coordinate migrant smuggling. The complaint said that in September and October 2020, the users appeared to discuss “smuggling” and prices for specific individuals, including minors, according to the report.
Federal investigators with the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) inspector general identified at least 12 sponsorship applications allegedly filed by Cahuec Coc between 2019 and 2023, according to The Free Press. At least eight of the applications allegedly misrepresented her identity or relationship to the children.
Six of the allegedly fraudulent applications were approved, while two were denied, the outlet reported. The complaint also describes additional fraudulent applications filed by an unnamed co-conspirator.
The case comes as the Trump administration has been reviewing how unaccompanied migrant children were released to sponsors under the Biden administration amid concerns that some children were placed with adults who had not been properly vetted.
The Department of Homeland Security said in November 2025 that it was moving to tighten vetting requirements for sponsors by strengthening background checks, criminal history screening, and verification of family relationships, Zeale News previously reported.
According to The Free Press, the administration has also been addressing a backlog of hotline tips that piled up under the Biden administration involving unaccompanied minors who went missing, reported abuse, or encountered gangs during their journeys into the U.S.
John Fabbricatore, a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement field director who recently served as a senior adviser at the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), told the outlet that thousands of unaccompanied migrant children were released to illegal immigrants during the Biden administration, sometimes based on false claims of family relationships.
“They could come and say they were an uncle or that they were a brother; there were no DNA tests done,” Fabbricatore said. “We found girls that were being raped by men that had taken them that were not their family, even though they claimed to be, and this was just one of many cases that we discovered.”
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The case follows a February 2024 report from the HHS inspector general that found gaps in ORR’s sponsor-vetting process. The report, based on a sample of cases from early 2021, found that 16% of children’s case files lacked documentation showing that one or more required sponsor safety checks had been completed. It also found that in 19% of cases where children were released before FBI fingerprint or child-abuse registry checks were completed, case files were never updated with the results.