A Florida grand jury has accused the Biden administration of “facilitating” child trafficking after a five-month investigation initiated by Governor Ron DeSantis.
The scathing report criticized the Biden Administration, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Service’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), alleging that they encourage unaccompanied minors from South and Central America to journey to the U.S. border and leave them to the care of unvetted adults.
The grand jury report states that “ORR is facilitating the forced migration, sale, and abuse of foreign children,” claiming that Florida residents, often unknowingly, are funding and incentivizing the process for economic reasons.
The grand jury emphasized the horrifying conditions faced by these children, including exposure to health hazards, criminal threats, labor and sex trafficking, and other violent experiences.
It remains unclear who testified before the grand jury.
Florida non-governmental organizations (NGOs) doing business with ORR were subpoenaed and asked for documents but refused to comply, citing orders from ORR.
According to the report, one NGO official said their organization would rather operate an unlicensed and illegal child placement facility than lose ORR’s funding.
The report also claims that ORR employees were discouraged from questioning the process and were fired in some cases.
For example, one employee was allegedly fired for reporting suspected human trafficking to a government hotline after ORR superiors declined to investigate.
The grand jury criticized the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for obstructing their investigation by refusing to provide subpoenaed documents, redacting vital tracking numbers from documents, and causing significant delays.
“HHS slow-walked productions and eventually provided the information in unusable or difficult-to-use formats, causing unacceptable and obstructive delays,” the reported states.
“HHS also redacted vital tracking numbers from the hard copy documents, meaning that staff were unable to link related SIRs together, or to link SIRs to any other ORR response.”
Governor DeSantis called for the grand jury investigation following reports of ORR flying in illegal immigrants detained at the border.
The panel discovered that this occurred on a massive scale, primarily in secret. They found that more than 70 large commercial passenger jets landed at Jacksonville’s international airport over a six-month period in 2021.
These flights arrived late at night, often after midnight, at a remote commercial terminal away from police facilities and passenger terminals.
“We learned that the very clandestine nature of ORR’s process was what first attracted the attention of some in our state; during a six-month period in 2021, more than 70 landed at the international airport in Jacksonville,” the report stated. “These flights arrived in the night time often after midnight, and landed not at the passenger terminal, but instead at an out-of-the-way commercial terminal used normally for shipping freight, away from police facilities and miles from the passenger terminal.”
Upon arrival in Florida, passengers were transported on private buses to unknown locations. The report stated, “If an operation were ferrying terrorists or large quantities of narcotics, this is what it would look like.”
