Congress shows no sign of letting up on the Biden administration six months after a major report revealed that the federal government could not locate 1-in-4 unaccompanied immigrant children apprehended at the border.
Democrats and Republicans alike have spent the summer sinking their teeth deeper into the whereabouts of 85,000 unaccompanied minors who were released to adult sponsors after coming over the southern border but are nowhere to be found now. The New York Times first reported in February that the government could not track down the children, but the issue has continued to build momentum.
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“Of the more than 300,000 migrant children who arrived in the United States on President Biden’s watch, roughly 85,000 could not be accounted for 30 days after they were placed with a sponsor," Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said during a floor speech before Congress departed for the August recess. “Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra knew about credible reports of trafficking and abuse but continued to push for speedy placement of migrants with sponsors with little regard for the dangers that that created.”
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) brought the issue up in a March hearing with Attorney General Merrick Garland, one of the first major shows by Democrats that the issue was a serious concern.
Padilla and Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) sent a letter to the CEOs of the major corporations that were listed in the original NYT report as employing minors and told them to take responsibility for their companies' actions.
Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) of Illinois and Padilla pushed Becerra during a June hearing to explain how the HHS had received warnings that unaccompanied children were being released to unsafe situations, including forced labor and trafficking, but ignored those warnings.
By June, lawmakers started to take action through legislation.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) reintroduced the End Child Trafficking Act, which would require U.S. border officials to conduct an on-the-spot DNA test of each child who is apprehended at the border to ensure they are related to the adult accompanying them.
Last month, Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX) joined Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Rick Scott (R-FL) and introduced a bill that would require the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services to take certain new steps when releasing an unaccompanied child to a sponsor inside the United States.
Political awareness of the issue on Capitol Hill continued to grow in the final week of July when House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) held a special screening for lawmakers to watch the movie Sound of Freedom.
Several Senate Republicans sent letters to the Democratic committee chairman days after the viewing and insisted panels schedule oversight hearings on child trafficking so that lawmakers could find immediate solutions.
The Republicans credited Sound of Freedom for playing an “important role in creating public awareness of this modern-day form of slavery.”
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The film has grossed more than $153 million since it was released in early July, largely due to strong support from conservatives and endorsements by religious leaders.
Despite the attention given to child trafficking by Congress and theaters, lawmakers and the public appear unsatisfied by the lack of federal response.