The federal government ought to bring child abandonment charges against the parents, often illegally in the United States, of migrant children who are sent alone through a human smuggling pipeline operated by the Mexican drug cartels at the southern border, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) says.

During a House Oversight Committee hearing this week, Perry questioned Robin Dunn Marcos, who oversees President Joe Biden’s Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) program where migrant children, who have arrived at the southern border, are briefly put into a federal care system before being released to sponsors across the U.S.

Those sponsoring UACs are often their illegal alien parents, though many are adults who have no relation to the migration children they are requesting to take custody of them.

Perry noted that the Biden administration removed the proof of address and background check requirement for immediate relatives of sponsors other than their parents or legal guardians. Marcos admitted that this Fiscal Year, alone, only 37 percent of UACs end up being placed with their biological parents.

“Do you ever refer for charges for abandonment? Do you understand that abandonment, in many states, is a felony offense?” Perry asked Marcos. “These children are coming to the border without their parents, which qualifies them as ‘unaccompanied’ … are charges ever referred for abandonment?”

Marcos responded by stating that the Office of Refugee Resettlement is “not a law enforcement agency,” to which Perry said, “I didn’t say you were.”

“If you found somebody doing a criminal act in the vetting process to one of these children, you’re not a law enforcement agency, would you refer charges?” Perry asked again. Marcos said the agency would report such activities but was unable to state how many parents of UACs had been referred for child abandonment.

“Let’s face it, these children are coming and they’re unaccompanied because someone has abandoned them,” Perry said. “Why don’t we refer charges for abandonment? I’m not asking you to do the law enforcement work, but my goodness if your job is to … care for those minors, my goodness, if you saw somebody beating up some little kid on the street, wouldn’t you call the police?”

A quarter of a million UACs have been resettled with sponsors across American communities since Biden took office. The majority, 64 to 66 percent, are boys, while 72 percent of all UACs are 15 to 18-years-old. Only 15 to 16 percent of UACs are babies, toddlers, and pre-teens.

As Breitbart News has chronicled, many UACs resettled across the U.S. since Biden took office have been placed with sponsors who have forced them to work brutal jobs to pay their way, while others are gaming the system, posing as migrant children but in fact are adult gang members or adult convicted criminals.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.