Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley R-Iowa and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn R-Texas said last month that a whistleblower familiar with the departments screening process revealed that at least 3400 children were released to sponsors convicted of a variety of crimes including child molestation domestic abuse and trafficking."
CQ
Senators from both parties slammed Obama administration officials Thursday for deficiencies in the system designed to ensure the safety of unaccompanied migrant children after they are released to sponsors in the United States.
Sens. Rob Portman R-Ohio and Claire McCaskill D-Mo. said at a hearing that the Health and Human Services Departments Office of Refugee Resettlement abdicated its responsibility for the children by repeatedly placing them in dangerous situations resulting in sexual assault work exploitation and trafficking.
The office is responsible for resettling unaccompanied migrants after they are apprehended.
Portman is chairman and McCaskill is the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The subcommittee released a staff report Thursday on the adequacy of department measures to protect children. The report found more than 30 cases of post-release trafficking or abuse by sponsors who took in unaccompanied migrants tens of thousands of whom have arrived at the border from Central America since 2014.
Officials said they have policies enhancing pre-release screening of U.S. sponsors including expanded background checks of all household members and backup care providers.
Portman who called the screening process troubling discussed a 2015 case in which six Guatemalan children were lured to an egg farm in Marion Ohio and forced to work in abject conditions after traffickers successfully petitioned HHS to act as the childrens sponsors. That case led to a federal indictment.
McCaskill talked about a 16-year-old girl who was placed with an individual who claimed to be her cousin and assaulted her as a type of mail-order bride.
Its intolerable that human trafficking really modern-day slavery could occur in our own backyard in the 21st century but it does said Portman. What makes this Marion case even more alarming is that a U.S. government agency was actually responsible for delivering some of the victims into the hands of the abusers.
Portman said HHS conducted pre-release home inspections of only 4 percent of sponsors over the past three years -- a statistic he said defies common sense. He also discussed cases where multiple sponsorship applications contained the same home address a pattern he said should have raised red flags.
McCaskill said she was tired of what she characterized as efforts by HHS to pass off responsibility for the children to the Homeland Security Department which is responsible for apprehending and funneling them to refugee services.
Somebody is going to step up said McCaskill.
Mark Greenberg the acting assistant secretary for Administration for Children and Families said the agencies are improving their policies.
I want to be clear that we view the Marion Ohio labor trafficking case as a deeply dismaying event he said. Child safety is a priority for us. We are committed to continuing to make revisions to strengthen our policies to learn all that we can from this and our ongoing experiences in operating the program.
McCaskill scolded the officials for taking so long.
You made a great improvement three days ago she said. Im not sure it wouldve happened without this hearing.
The hearing followed an Associated Press report this week that alleged HHS loosened its safety protocols to handle an overwhelming influx of asylum cases. The APs investigation said HHS failed to fingerprint potential sponsors and stopped requiring birth certificates and other biographic information used to prove identities. In some cases the report said the department also stopped running FBI background checks.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley R-Iowa and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn R-Texas said last month that a whistleblower familiar with the departments screening process revealed that at least 3400 children were released to sponsors convicted of a variety of crimes including child molestation domestic abuse and trafficking.
House Judiciary Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte R-Va. who called the abuse allegations tragic and unacceptable said he would push legislation (HR 1149) to require HHS to provide DHS with biographical information on potential sponsors. The bill sponsored by John Carter R-Texas also would require DHS to follow up with sponsors to verify their immigration status.
