A top official at President Joe Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) cannot definitively say how many Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) the agency remains in contact with after they are released to adult sponsors in the United States.
During a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) questioned Office of Refugee Resettlement Director Robin Dunn Marcos on a labor trafficking pipeline of UACs that has exploded under Biden.
In particular, earlier this year it was reported by the New York Times that at least 85,000 UACs have lost contact with HHS officials after their release to adult sponsors in the U.S.
When questioned about how many of the roughly 430,000 UACs — who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border on Biden’s watch — HHS officials keep in contact with, Dunn Marcos said she did not have the figure on hand.
The exchange went as follows:
HAWLEY: 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?
DUNN MARCOS: Senator, we have a number of different providers across the country…
HAWLEY: But what’s the number, how many are you in contact … you said child welfare is your top concern, what’s the number?
DUNN MARCOS: I don’t have the specific number.
HAWLEY: How can you not know? Why would you come to this hearing and not know … 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.
Likewise, Dunn Marcos told Hawley that background checks on adult sponsors are done in “some cases” but not all. The percentage of background checks conducted on all adults in a UAC sponsor’s household also was not provided by Dunn Marcos.
“I don’t have that number,” she said when asked for the figure.
“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 continued, to which Dunn Marcos responded, “We do not do home visits in all cases.”
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.
As Breitbart News has detailed, Biden 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.
In April, an HHS whistleblower testified before Congress and warned that the agency is operating a “multi-billion-dollar child trafficking operation” where UACs arrive at the border, are taken into Department of Homeland Security (DHS) custody before being sent to HHS, and then released to unvetted adult sponsors — most of whom are not their biological parents.
“Some sponsors view children as commodities and assets to be used for earning income —–this is why we are witnessing an explosion of labor trafficking,” the whistleblower said.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.