Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) grilled President Joe Biden’s Acting Labor Department Secretary Julie Su over a labor trafficking pipeline within the United States that now includes many Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) after they were released into the U.S. from the southern border.
Since Biden took office, Health and Human Services (HHS) officials have lost contact with some 85,000 UACs after releasing them into the U.S. interior to adult sponsors — the overwhelming majority of whom are not their biological parents.
Reports indicate that top Biden officials such as HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and former Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice have ignored warnings that UACs are ending up in a widespread labor trafficking pipeline as well as sex trafficking and general abuse at the hands of their adult sponsors.
During a committee hearing on Wednesday, Banks asked Su what exactly the Labor Department was doing about the labor trafficking pipeline.
“Reportedly hundreds of thousands of illegal children have entered our workforce in dangerous jobs and this story says that you and this administration have completely ignored what I believe is another example of the biggest humanitarian crisis in American history. What the heck are you doing about it?” Banks asked.
Su, though, responded that the agency is doing all it can do to prevent violations of the nation’s child labor laws, an answer that Banks did not accept.
The exchange went as follows:
BANKS: Mrs. Secretary, this story says you ignored this issue. I know you said I’m right but why is your department ignoring hundreds of thousands of children illegally working in the workplace in unsafe positions? What are you doing about it?
SU: Thank you congressman for that, you’re right. Let me pointed about this. I don’t believe the story said that the Department of Labor was not doing what we need to do. In fact, I believe the stories came out because the Department of Labor was doing our job. We investigated a case that involved over 100 young people as young as 13 working under the conditions that you’ve talked about.
BANKS: Mam, the policies of this administration, opening the border wide open has resulted in hundreds of thousands of migrant children entering the workforce in America in unsafe conditions. In fact, one lawyer … said that there were so many opportunities for the Biden administration to connect these dots that no one ever did. The question is, why didn’t you ever do anything about it? You’re coming before this committee today and telling me you agree with me but what are you doing about it? What is the all-hands-on-deck moment in your department to take care of this issue
SU: I agree that the work, children doing that work is horrific. This is also related to our budget request … to make sure we have the resources to investigate all the cases–
Banks then stepped in to note that no such explosion of child migrant labor trafficking occurred under former President Trump when interior immigration enforcement was a top priority of the administration.
“Let me story you there, the Trump administration was night and day different than your administration,” Banks said. In fact, since the Biden administration started, we’ve seen a 69 percent increase in child labor violations because of the open borders policies that have flooded this country, in this case, with over 250,000 kids coming into our country entering unsafe conditions … even the New York Times says that you’re ignoring it … [DHS Secretary Alejandro] shifted the blame and said it’s your fault, is he right about that?”
Su said the agency is already combatting child migrant labor trafficking:
Sir, I agree that children should not be doing these jobs and I agree that we should do everything we can … to crack down on child labor and making investigations and making sure that employers who profit from this kind of labor are held accountable. That is what we did in the case … that’s probably the one that’s in that news article because that is the case that helped to bring this issue to light and I think it’s a positive thing that we’re talking about this issue. [Emphasis added]
As Breitbart News has detailed, Biden has tripled the inflow of UACs to the U.S., coinciding with the explosion in child migrant labor trafficking. In Biden’s first two years, close to 300,000 UACs arrived at the border and were released into the U.S. interior with adult sponsors, only a fraction of whom were their biological sponsors.
In April, a whistleblower detailed to Congress how the federal government is operating a “multi-billion-dollar child trafficking operation” under the guise of helping and resettling UACs.
“I thought I was going to help place children in loving homes,” the whistleblower said. “Instead, I discovered that children are being trafficked through a sophisticated network that begins with being recruited in their home country, smuggled to the U.S. border, and ends when [HHS] delivers a child to a sponsor – some sponsors are criminals and traffickers and members of Transnational Criminal Organizations.”
WATCH: Whistleblower: Federal Government Facilitating “Multi-Billion-Dollar Child Trafficking Operation” at U.S. Border
House Judiciary GOP/ YouTubeJohn Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.