Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) accused the Biden administration of taking part in the “largest child trafficking ring in American history.”
The statement was made during a hearing where Hawley questioned Office of Refugee Resettlement Director, Robin Dunn Marcos.
“How many kids, right now, of the 430,000 approximately unaccompanied children who have crossed the border under this administration — it’s an astounding number — how many are you in regular contact with right now?” Hawley asked Marcos.
Marcos responded she does not have the “specific number.”
“How can you not know? Why would you come to this hearing and not know?” Hawley said, adding, “Respectfully, I would like you to do your job and not release children to human traffickers. Respectfully, that’s what I would like. I would like you to not facilitate the largest child trafficking ring in American history.”
Marcos could not provide details of how many adults receive background checks before taking the children.
“Do you do home visits in these cases where you can actually see where these children are being released, whose care you’re putting them in?” Hawley asked, to which Dunn Marcos stated, “We do not do home visits in all cases.”
“Do you really think that you are helping these children by releasing them to labor traffickers and yes, sex traffickers?” Hawley noted. “85,000 children whom you have no contact with and your answer is—we gave them a presentation before we turned them over to these people who are exploiting them on a scale not seen in this country for 100 years.”
