The results from a top Senate Republican’s year-and-a-half research into the Biden-Harris government’s response to an influx of alone immigrant children at the southwestern boundary suggest a multitude of “failures” by the federal government.
By securing the southern border, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had the authority to stop children from being exploited, according to a declaration from Cassidy. More than address the humanitarian crisis brought on by failed Biden-Harris policies, Democrats reportedly used the border crisis as a promotion message.
The approximately 160-page report was published Tuesday night. According to the report,” top administration officials knew about the dramatic rise in illegal child labor, but they did n’t take any meaningful steps to stop it,” and that “prioritized speed over safety when [unaccompanied children ] were allegedly given to adult sponsors for political gain because of their failed immigration policies and the southern border crisis.”
Specifically, Murphy documented four problems on the part of the Biden-Harris supervision. The leadership then took actions that led to less expected devotion when evaluating child partners, which put children at risk. Secondly, as more and more nongovernmental organizations were hired to oversee the custody of the children, vette those sponsors, and maintain those children.
Additionally, the Department of Labor “did not labor together” with businesses that were accused of using children too young to operate against their will in media reviews. Eventually, the White House obstructed Cassidy’s investigation into the matter, including the one conducted by the House.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who will soon be replaced by Cassidy in January, did not respond to a request for comment on why he did not assist Cassidy. Without that help, Cassidy would not be able to subpoena related government departments and organizations for information.
The British citizens were failed by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. The success of President Trump and a Republican majority in Congress give us a chance to secure our boundary and reverse tragic Democrat policies that harm children,” Cassidy said. ” I’m determined to work with President Trump and my coworkers to accomplish this.”
Flow of alone kids under Biden-Harris
No additional administration has come close to surpassing 500, 000 unaccompanied children in perhaps two terms of office, according to Customs and Border Protection statistics, which is the figure that President Joe Biden set out to achieve from January 2021 to March 2024.
Border controls changed as Trump’s White House transitioned to Biden in early 2021, and epidemic travel restrictions were lifted in some places around the world. Eventually, movement increased all over the world, including among young people who came to the United States.
The Biden presidency made the decision to stop sending children to Mexico in February 2021, as had been practiced since March 2020. Within a few weeks, hundreds of unaccompanied children showed up regularly at the U.S. southern boundary at unheard of rates.
Children without kids are typically taken into custody by Border Patrol after crossing the border, and they are then transferred within three days to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is run by Congress and is not a member of federal law enforcement.
HHS searches for an adult to let the child live with and HHS holds the child in its own services for an average of one month.
More than 85, 000 babies who had been released during the Biden administration’s first two years were unable to be contacted or followed up with by HHS after their release from life with their partners, according to the New York Times in early 2023. Some children were forced into risky work or trafficked into the United States against their will, according to the report.
In a campaign rally in October, speaking to tens of thousands of followers inside Madison Square Garden in New York City, President-elect Donald Trump declared that that number was then up to “325, 000 kids” who were now “missing or lifeless” after coming over the borders and being released to partners.
Cassidy launches research
Soon after the newspaper’s record, Cassidy’s investigation began, and it was intended to shed light on whether the government was protecting children adequately.
The Biden-Harris administration took urgent measures to release children quickly so that it could accommodate the growing number of minors at its shelters due to the influx of children at the border under Biden ( roughly 10,000 to 20 000 per month since 2021 ).
Despite numerous studies from the HHS Office of Inspector General that concluded these laws failed to protect children from abuse, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra loosen partner screening needs.
” The directive to prioritize speed at all costs came from HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, who implored ORR staff to convert the]unaccompanied children ] release process into a system modeled after Henry Ford’s assembly line”, Cassidy’s report stated. In an effort to speed up the release of [unaccompanied children], ORR complied by issuing two area advice memos over the objections of job staff.
The statement continued that the influx of emergency accommodation facilities had “very weak case management, failed to adequately animal sponsors before releasing children], and even hired employees without conducting needed criminal background and sex offender registry checks.”
In a report released in February of this year, the HHS Office of Inspector General discovered that 16 % of children’s case files lacked evidence sponsor safety checks, and 19 % of children were released to adults before the FBI’s fingerprint and state child abuse registry offices had to share the results with the government about the sponsors.
” HHS has repeatedly failed to respond to these demands for weeks at a time, and sometimes not at all”, Cassidy’s report stated. ” The company’s responses were mostly unhelpful and often provided the information requested”.
HHS outsources partner screening, DOL drops the puck
HHS brought on a nonprofit company, The Providencia Group, to carry out monitoring and assessing of sponsors for children, even though its history of similar previous work was “abysmal”. It established a fresh Sponsor Services Initiative that lacked complete partner verification.
Prior to being awarded the contract, The Providencia Group ( TPG), according to the report,” the contractor selected by ORR had a terrible record providing case management services at [emergency intake sites where children were detained],” the report stated.” At the sites where TPG employees worked, children told the HHS inspector general that they went “weeks” without seeing their case manager, and some were released to sponsors before all vetting requirements were completed.
Prior to the release of the report, the TPG stated in a statement to the Washington Examiner that it had completed all contractual obligations and that it had never participated in the cited instances of deficient partner screening.
” Senator Cassidy’s email stated that TPG is, in part, responsible for’ major gaps in the sponsor screening process,'” TPG said in an message. The Senator was respectfully informed that this statement was untrue.
In incidents where children were trafficked, not allowed to enroll in school, or enslaved in work where they were too young to have part-time jobs, the Department of Labor did not take a proactive approach to intervene, Cassidy concluded.
The report summary stated that “despite the administration knowing about the record level of child labor violations since early 2021, DOL has not taken any meaningful steps to address this crisis.” After these violations have occurred, DO only concentrates on implementing them. Without focusing on steps to prevent this exploitation, child labor violations remain at record highs”.
Information that Cassidy’s team, according to Cassidy, requested from federal contractors was not provided.
When incidents, such as child deaths in custody, occurred, local and state police did not cooperate with the HHS and contractors ‘ requests to report those allegations.
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According to the report,” HHS ignored subpoenas and refused to provide documents or witnesses to a Florida Grand Jury empaneled to investigate criminal or wrongful activity related to the smuggling and endangerment of]unaccompanied children.” Additionally, the organization continues to obstruct ORR facility staff from contacting state-run child welfare and law enforcement organizations with concerns.
Requests for comment were not addressed by the White House or HHS.
