Prairie State Wire

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), Chair of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety, sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra requesting information related to reports that HHS received warnings that unaccompanied children were being released from HHS custody into situations that presented a risk of labor exploitation and trafficking. 

Rather than heeding these warnings, HHS allegedly engaged in retaliation against staff who reported concerns and created an environment that the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) described as “whistleblower chilling.” 

In the letter, the Senators outline their oversight responsibilities to protect these children’s safety: “As Chairs of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety, it is our responsibility to conduct oversight over implementation of the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) and ensure that HHS is meeting its legal obligations under that Act with respect to the care and protection of unaccompanied children.” 

The Senators close their letter by outlining the vulnerability of our most recent arrivals, before outlining the information sought: “We also appreciate the challenges your agencies have faced at the border with the influx of unaccompanied minors crossing the border in recent years, as well as ORR [Office of Refugee Resettlement]’s ongoing efforts to provide care and timely release for children in their custody. The Committee is tasked with ensuring that HHS is meeting its legal obligations to protect the safety and well-being of our most vulnerable recent arrivals. Oversight of the placement and care of unaccompanied children is particularly necessary today, as some states are loosening child labor laws and others are refusing to ensure that unaccompanied children have any mechanisms to report exploitation, abuse, or trafficking.” 

The Senators’ letter concludes by asking for a series of documents and communications by July 20, 2023. 

Earlier this month, Durbin held a committee hearing on ensuring the safety and well-being of unaccompanied children, while leading oversight efforts to hold companies accountable for unlawfully employing migrant children. Additionally, Durbin and 16 Senate colleagues wrote to Secretary Becerra and then-Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh to request information on children’s placement with sponsors and investigations into child labor. 

These efforts follow a bombshell New York Times report in February detailing abuse and exploitation of migrant children, after which Durbin took to the Senate floor to call on Congress to protect children from exploitation and fix our broken immigration system.

Full text of the letter to Secretary Becerra is available here

Original source can be found here.