(NewsNation) — The situation of unaccompanied children arriving at the border landed two of President Joe Biden’s cabinet secretaries in separate hot seats on Capitol Hill.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra each faced scathing questions from Republican lawmakers, who are frustrated at what they say are examples of a crisis at the southern border being handwaved by the Biden administration.
“Drug cartels and traffickers exploiting 60% of these children in prostitution, forced labor and child pornography,” said Rep. Ben Cline (R-Va.) during Mayorkas’ appearance in front of the House Oversight Committee. “To make matters worse, in June the Biden administration released 344 children to non-related adults in the United States most of whom already had multiple children in their care.”
Mayorkas asserts the border is closed and the federal government has operation control. Recent DHS data reveals 335 children arrived at the U.S. southern border without any family in a single day.
Becerra faced questions about unaccompanied children in HHS custody. He said more than 83,000 children with vetted sponsors, and 85% of them were placed with a parent, legal guardian, or close family member.
He said vetted sponsors must undergo a comprehensive screening process to ensure they’re suitable caregivers.
“Each sponsor must submit a detailed application giving us information about their identity, their address, their relationship to the child. They must provide additional supporting documents. They must provide us with records whether it’s a birth certificate or whether it’s a driver’s license, they must go through background checks,” Becerra explained.
Arizona Congresswoman Debbie Lesko pushed back, stating HHS isn’t doing an adequate job vetting sponsors.
“If you are vetting these sponsors so great, how come according to Florida statewide grand jury documents one single family in Austin, Texas had more than 100 children sent to it by [the Office of Refugee Resettlement]? Another Texas address had 44 children, a third had 25,” Lesko said.
According to an internal U.S. Customs and Border Protection memo from May, the rapid DNA familial testing contract is set to expire, suspending the DNA requirement. Becerra confirmed that providing DNA for sponsorship is voluntary.
Currently, 7,510 unaccompanied children are in HHS custody — that’s up from 5,766 on the same day last month. The number of unaccompanied minors has increased, reaching levels similar to those seen before the end of Title 42.
“I was on the southern border, and we used that border to rescue people, to rescue children,” said Former DHS special agent Tim Ballard, who works to fight child trafficking. “The United States is the number one consumer of child sex material in the world. So, when you have tens of thousands of unaccompanied children being dropped off and lost into the belly of that, that’s scary.”
Sources told NewsNation that children are frequently sent over alone and later used for family reunification. Also, some are reportedly used for a fee to assist single adult me in crossing into the U.S.
World Day Against Trafficking of Persons takes places Sunday; the mission is to raise awareness and calls to enhance efforts when it comes to human trafficking.