CPAC has long recognized the danger caused by the Biden-Harris administration leaving our Southern Border free to traffickers and crime. Thankfully, our conservative leaders in Congress have joined us in this fight as the House Homeland Security Committee is holding a hearing this week focused on the Trafficking, Exploitation, and Missing Migrant Children Victims of the Biden Harris Administration.
While the American people made clear that they rejected open borders during the presidential election, it’s important to continue to expose what happens next after these children are trafficked into our country. As leaders in the House turn their eyes to the fallout of four years of incompetency defending our port of entries, it’s important to take stock of what we do know. As CPAC’s Center for Combating Human Trafficking testified before the House Judiciary Committee last fall, studies show that nearly 60 percent of all children brought across the border illegally fall into the hands of cartels, facing horrific exploitation. What’s even worse is that the Biden-Harris administration teamed up with the media to sell a lie that these children brought across the border were done so to be alongside family. Yet DNA testing during the Trump and Obama administrations showed that only 30 percent of these minors were brought into the country to be with blood relatives. Of course, under the Biden-Harris regime that testing was nixed, leaving us with even more uncertainty on where unaccompanied minors end up following their entry into the United States.
So, it should come as no surprise that the Biden-Harris Department of Homeland Security has admitted that it cannot account for over 370,000 unaccompanied minors who entered during the past four years. At the heart of this tragic failure, is the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) that holds the responsibility to protect and keep constant contact with these children. As we testified to the Senate Budget Committee earlier this year, that office has abdicated its responsibility, not only losing track of the children, but refusing to conduct wellness checks on those few minors they do know the whereabouts of. This has effectively allowed traffickers to operate with impunity across our country, something the voters made clear they are sick and tired of in communities of all backgrounds.
We are encouraged that leadership on the House Homeland Security Committee is prioritizing the needs of children and joining their constituents in bringing an end to this unlawfulness. CPAC stands ready to work alongside our partners in Congress to not only seal our open border but root out the scourge of evil that traffickers bring to our communities. Voters have sent a clear message to Congress – one that President-Elect Trump intends to deliver on – that public safety comes first, and modern-day slavery has no place in modern day American. We hope today’s hearing is a first step in bringing an end to human trafficking in the United States.
