WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week, House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN) published an op-ed in the Washington Examiner, detailing the horrific exploitation of unaccompanied alien children (UACs) within the United States amid the historic Biden-Harris border crisis. The op-ed follows a recent report from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) revealing that since Fiscal Year 2019, DHS failed to issue court dates to hundreds of thousands of UACs and tens of thousands more have failed to show up for their court hearings, which has left them them especially vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Read the full op-ed here and below.

LOST IN THE SYSTEM: How Migrant Children Are Being Exploited Within Our Own Borders
Chairman Mark Green
Washington Examiner
September 2, 2024
 
Amidst the debate over immigration policy, we must not lose sight of the very real human cost of the crisis at the southern border. The truth is that the policy decisions being made in Washington have the capacity to cause real human suffering. 
 
A recent report from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) is just the latest evidence of this sad reality. 
 
Last month, investigators released a heart-breaking report showing that out of nearly 450,000 unaccompanied minor children (UACs) transferred from DHS custody to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) since Fiscal Year (FY) 2019, more than 291,000 were not given Notices to Appear. More than 32,000 who did receive notices failed to appear for their immigration hearing. Of those 291,000, more than 90,000 were encountered in FY 2021 alone. The OIG offered this solemn conclusion: “[UACs] who did not appear in immigration court are considered more at risk for trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.” 
 
This is just the latest in an unacceptable string of failures to properly care for the more than 512,000 UACs encountered by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the southern border under the Biden administration. 
 
These minors endure unspeakable hardship getting to the border, including physical violence, sexual assault, and the degradation of being used to create “fake families” to ensure the prompt release of family units—which this administration largely no longer detains. Even if agents suspect a family is not legitimate, CBP has adopted a policy in which DNA testing is conducted only at the consent of the migrant adult claiming to be responsible for the child.

The nightmare does not end when these minors arrive in the United States. After processing them, DHS releases them to HHS for placement with “sponsors” throughout the country. However, numerous reports from government watchdogs and whistleblowers have shown how troubled this process is. 
 
A September 2022 HHS OIG report, for example, found that early in 2021, “basic safety measures” had been removed “from the sponsor screening process in an effort to expedite children’s release from care.” Another HHS OIG report in February 2024 found that in an audit of case files from March-April 2021, 16% of those cases “did not contain any documentation” showing “required safety checks for sponsors were conducted.” 
 
According to an independent grand jury investigation into the administration’s policies, “In one memorable instance, a federal employee was told by an ORR attorney to stop asking questions about potentially unsafe sponsors because doing so caused delay, and ‘[W]e only get sued for keeping them too long. We don’t get sued by traffickers. Are we clear?’”
 
One could be forgiven for assuming that HHS is sufficiently vetting the individuals to whom they are releasing these vulnerable children. That assumption would be wrong.
 
And the consequences have been devastating. 
 
One immigration expert recently testified before the House Homeland Security Committee that these children have been released into clearly abusive, unsafe situations: “[G]irls have been placed with older men in what is clearly an exploitative situation. There are kids who have been turned over to labor traffickers. There are kids who get turned over to gang members. There are kids who get placed into domestic servitude and other forms of abuse.” 
 
The grand jury investigation documented one shocking instance in which more than 100 children were sent to the same address in Austin, Texas, while other addresses received 44 and 25 minors, respectively.  
 
It should come as no surprise, then, that last July, the Department of Labor reported a 44% increase in children who are victims of forced labor. As reported by the New York Times, “[A]ll along, there were signs of the explosive growth of this labor force and warnings that the Biden administration ignored or missed.”
 
The House Homeland Security Committee has been raising these concerns for years and continues to investigate the Biden administration’s handling of the situation. We are still awaiting fulfillment of our request for documents and information on multiple matters, including the number of UACs placed with sponsors who have been charged with, convicted, or investigated for any crime against a child. 
 
While I do not believe this mass exploitation and abuse was the desired outcome of the Biden administration’s border policies, we must evaluate those policies based on results, not intentions. This administration has failed at every step in protecting these children, effectively enabling a system that empowers human trafficking and abuse. 
 
The failures unveiled in this latest DHS OIG report further demonstrate how this is one of the most shameful humanitarian crises of our time. Allowing it to continue is unconscionable. My committee continues speaking to sources, law enforcement professionals, and experts on anti-human trafficking and smuggling efforts who are blowing the whistle on this system. We will get answers and work to end the policies that have put these children in harm’s way.
 

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