    [Senate Hearing 118-41]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                                                               S. Hrg. 118-41

                       ENSURING THE SAFETY AND WELL-BEING
                           OF UNACCOMPANIED CHILDREN

    =======================================================================

                                    HEARING

                                   BEFORE THE

                           COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
                              UNITED STATES SENATE

                        ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                                 FIRST SESSION

                                   __________

                                 JUNE 14, 2023

                                   __________

                              Serial No. J-118-22

                                   __________

             Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary

    [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                       U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
    52-710 PDF                  WASHINGTON : 2024

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                           COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY

                       RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois, Chair
    DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California         LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina,
    SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island             Ranking Member
    AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota             CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa
    CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware       JOHN CORNYN, Texas
    RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut      MICHAEL S. LEE, Utah
    MAZIE K. HIRONO, Hawaii              TED CRUZ, Texas
    CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey           JOSH HAWLEY, Missouri
    ALEX PADILLA, California             TOM COTTON, Arkansas
    JON OSSOFF, Georgia                  JOHN KENNEDY, Louisiana
    PETER WELCH, Vermont                 THOM TILLIS, North Carolina
                                         MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee
                 Joseph Zogby, Chief Counsel and Staff Director
          Katherine Nikas, Republican Chief Counsel and Staff Director

                                C O N T E N T S

                                  ----------

                           JUNE 14, 2023, 10:03 A.M.

                        STATEMENTS OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS

                                                                       Page

    Durbin, Hon. Richard J., a U.S. Senator from the State of
      Illinois.......................................................     1
    Graham, Hon. Lindsey O., a U.S. Senator from the State of South
      Carolina.......................................................     3
    Padilla, Alex, a U.S. Senator from the State of California.......     4
    Cornyn, John, a U.S. Senator from the State of Texas.............     6

                                   WITNESSES

    Witness List.....................................................    39
    Basham, Anne, founder and chair, Interparliamentary Taskforce on
      Human Trafficking, Fairfax Station, Virginia...................    15
        prepared statement...........................................    40
    Bradley, Venus, foster parent, Durham, North Carolina............    10
        prepared statement...........................................    44
    Davidson, Lorie, LCSW-C, vice president, Children and Family
      Services, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Baltimore,
      Maryland.......................................................    13
        prepared statement...........................................    48
    Gerstein, Terri, director, State and Local Enforcement Project,
      Center for Labor and a Just Economy, Harvard Law School,
      Brooklyn, New York.............................................    17
        prepared statement...........................................    58
    Ries, Lora, director, Border Security and Immigration Center,
      Heritage Foundation, Washington, DC............................    11
        prepared statement...........................................    81

                    MISCELLANEOUS SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD

    Submitted by Chair Durbin:

        AFL-CIO, statement, June 14, 2023............................    87
        Child Labor Coalition, statement, June 14, 2023..............    95
        Church World Service, statement..............................    98
        Kids in Need of Defense, statement, June 14, 2023............    99
        Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area,
          statement, June 14, 2023...................................   104
        Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights, statement, June
          14, 2023...................................................   123

                       ENSURING THE SAFETY AND WELL-BEING
                           OF UNACCOMPANIED CHILDREN

                                  ----------

                            WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 2023

                                  United States Senate,
                                    Committee on the Judiciary,
                                                        Washington, DC.
        The Committee met, pursuant to notice at 10:03 a.m., in
    Room 106, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Richard J.
    Durbin, Chair of the Committee, presiding.
        Present: Senators Durbin [presiding], Whitehouse,
    Blumenthal, Booker, Padilla, Ossoff, Graham, Cornyn, Cruz,
    Hawley, Cotton, Kennedy, Tillis, and Blackburn.

              OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. RICHARD J. DURBIN,
               A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS

        Chair Durbin. This hearing of the Senate Judiciary
    Committee will come to order. I want to start with a little
    history. Back in 2002, over 20 years ago, this Committee held a
    hearing on bipartisan legislation entitled the Unaccompanied
    Alien Children Protection Act. It was introduced by our
    colleague, Senator Dianne Feinstein, along with Republican
    Senator from Kansas Sam Brownback. The bill was a response to a
    bipartisan concern that unaccompanied children seeking safe
    haven in the United States were being deported back to
    countries where they were not safe and where they might be
    persecuted.
        Six years of debate followed on this issue and in 2008,
    listen carefully, the Senate unanimously passed the Trafficking
    Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, TVPRA. That bill
    included the Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act. It was
    signed into law, listen again, by President George W. Bush.
    Sadly, since then, the immigration debate has devolved into a
    much more partisan issue, and often then vulnerable children
    are the victims of that political battle. During the Obama
    administration, some Republicans falsely claimed that the DACA
    program, which the President initiated at my urging to protect
    Dreamers for deportation was the reason that unaccompanied
    children were fleeing to our border.
        I've heard that argument made by one Senator on the floor
    repeatedly. When the Trump administration began and
    unaccompanied children were still coming, some Republicans
    claimed the TVPRA of 2008 was really to blame. They're ignoring
    the obvious. The world was and still is in the midst of the
    worst refugee crisis in modern history. And we used to believe
    a bipartisan approach to this would have a moral and legal
    responsibility created to protect vulnerable children who are
    fleeing persecution. We've received about 10,000 or 12,000
    migrant children in the City of Chicago sent to us from the
    Governor of Texas and other Republican leaders in States. I've
    made a point of trying to meet some of these people and
    understand what led them to this desperate situation.
        It's heartbreaking. It was less than 2 weeks ago that I was
    at a Piotrowski Park shelter in the City of Chicago and met
    with 50 or 60 of these mothers and their kids. The kids are
    little kids who have made this death-defying journey to the
    United States. And you think to yourself, ``Who in their right
    mind--what parent in their right mind would subject their kids
    to the danger of that journey? How desperate they would be to
    have that happen.'' You see it over and over again. They felt
    that they couldn't feed their children, or the children
    couldn't exist in a safe way in their countries any longer, and
    they were prepared to risk their lives and the lives of their
    children to make the journey.
        This is an issue that should transcend politics. So I tried
    to be consistent in my oversight efforts, whether the President
    was Republican or Democrat. I vigorously opposed President
    Trump's inhumane family separation policy, and I immediately
    raised concerns following recent reports that unaccompanied
    children were being exploited. Ranking Member Graham and
    Immigration Subcommittee Ranking Member Cornyn, along with
    other Republican Members of the Committee, sent a letter asking
    me to hold this hearing. As I told them in response, I would
    accommodate this request because I was already working with
    Immigration Subcommittee Chair Padilla on today's hearing.
        I also asked Senators Padilla, Graham, and Cornyn to join
    me in a document request to the Department of Health and Human
    Services to learn more about what went wrong and how to fix it.
    What we must not do is weaken the TVPRA and make it easier to
    deport unaccompanied children back into harm's way. Our laws
    require that these children are screened for human trafficking,
    housed in child-appropriate settings, reunified with any family
    in the United States while they await their immigration
    proceedings. But the tragedy is that these children are still
    at risk. Migrant children have been forced to work long hours
    in extremely dangerous conditions, from meatpacking plants and
    slaughterhouses, for example.
        Well, many, many years ago when I was in college, I worked
    my way through college four straight summers in a
    slaughterhouse in East St. Louis, Illinois. I can tell you from
    my personal observation it is no place for a child. They could
    easily lose a limb or their life in this dangerous environment.
    Since 2018, our Nation has seen a nearly 70 percent increase in
    illegally employed children. Earlier this year, I demanded the
    Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services do more to
    protect these kids. Both have made some progress, but not
    enough. And let's not forget our responsibility on this side of
    the table. It's no secret that employers throughout our country
    are struggling to find workers.
        Some States like Arkansas, actually loosen child labor laws
    in the hopes of addressing workforce needs. Let's consider
    another approach. Let's reform our immigration laws and allow
    adults to meet workforce needs instead of exploiting children
    fleeing abuse. I hope today's hearing will be an opportunity to
    revive the bipartisan spirit of many years ago and discuss how
    to protect unaccompanied children who are frightened and
    traumatized.
        With that, I hand off to the Ranking Member, Senator
    Graham.

              OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. LINDSEY O. GRAHAM,
            A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA

        Senator Graham. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate you
    having the hearing. I think this hearing will illustrate the
    differences between our side and yours about a problem we have
    in common. Nobody wants unaccompanied children to be abused, to
    be put in labor environments that are unhealthy. Bottom line
    is, the policies of this administration, Mr. Chairman, are not
    working. In FY 2020, there were 33,239 unaccompanied minor
    encounters at our border. In FY 2022, 2 years later, it's
    152,057. There's been a 357 percent increase regarding
    unaccompanied minors at our border.
        Have you ever asked, ``What happened?'' You should. We all
    want children to be well taken care of. But have you ever asked
    the question, ``What is it in the last 2 years that's driven
    the numbers up 357 percent?'' It's policy. The Biden
    administration has a policy that if you're an unaccompanied
    child not from Canada or Mexico, you will not be sent back to
    the country of origin. In FY 2022, the average age of an
    unaccompanied minor was around 14, 64 percent were boys.
        The countries of origin: 47 percent from Honduras, 29
    percent from El Salvador, and others 11 percent. Honduras,
    Guatemala--excuse me: Guatemala, 47 percent; Honduras, 29; El
    Salvador, 13. These three countries make up the bulk of
    unaccompanied minor encounters at the border.
        Now, why is that? If you're an unaccompanied minor from
    that country, you're not sent back, and people know it. You're
    located in the United States at taxpayer expense. You're
    enticing more, not less. Here's a solution. Have a consistent
    policy. Send children back to their home country even if
    they're not from Mexico or Canada. This will stop overnight.
    The journey to get here is hell on earth. Only God knows what
    happens to young girls in particular.
        So the reason we wanted this hearing is to highlight the
    problem and ask the Biden administration to consider changing
    policy. They have changed policy regarding post-Title 42. We're
    down to 3,500 a day, and we're celebrating that. But that's
    better than 10,000 a day. So, Mr. Chairman, the answer to why
    there's been a 357 percent increase in unaccompanied minors is
    policy. I'd love to work with you, but there's nothing we can
    do until you change your policy.
        The three countries I just named have figured out that if
    you can get an unaccompanied minor here in the United States
    they never leave. Bottom line is, the Flores decision has also
    incentivized the use of children. If you come as a family unit,
    we can't detain a child. Then, the family most likely is
    released in the United States. We've created a demand for human
    smugglers to get children involved in the smuggling process.
    Because if you can get a child, whether it's a family member or
    not, you claim it to be a family, then the chance of you being
    deported has gone way down.
        So we have incentivized the use of children in illegal
    immigration, and nothing will change until we change our
    policy. This idea of a family unit, it's obvious to me that
    more and more people in the human trafficking business,
    smuggling, have figured out that if you can get a minor child,
    not an unaccompanied adult male in the mix, the chance of the
    unit staying in the United States goes exponentially up. So, as
    we talk about the abuse, we all agree is bad, we'd like it to
    stop in terms of hiring children illegally. Count me in in
    stopping that.
        But the reason we wanted this hearing is to try to persuade
    our friends on the other side that the policy choices of the
    Biden administration are creating an unending flow of children
    to this country. The idea of having a child in a family unit,
    whether they're family or not, the incentives for the smugglers
    to use children is through the roof. And we're now seeing
    children be recycled that came here, released in the United
    States, sent back to the country of origin, and the smugglers
    use them yet again. You're never going to break this cycle
    until you change policy. And there'll never be an immigration
    deal that codifies this strategy.
        So a good-faith step in fixing our immigration problems is
    to change policy regarding unaccompanied minors. It's in the
    minor child's interest and it's in our national security
    interest and it's in our interests as a nation. This needs to
    change and stop. And a 357 percent increase in the last 2 years
    is going to continue in perpetuity until we change policy.
        Chair Durbin. Senator Graham, as you often say, ``Count me
    in,'' I hope you understand I mean it. You and I have worked on
    this issue for how long? I don't know, more than 10 years. And
    we've tried to find bipartisan solutions, sometimes angering
    people on our own parties in the process. I met last week with
    Congresswoman Veronica Escobar from El Paso, who is working on
    a bipartisan approach in the House. I hope we can talk to her
    and talk about policy changes on a bipartisan basis. Happy to
    introduce now Senator Padilla, Chairman of the Immigration
    Subcommittee.

                OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ALEX PADILLA,
              A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

        Senator Padilla. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you,
    Ranking Member Grassley and Mr. Chairman, also for the
    opportunity to co-chair this hearing focused on not just
    protecting unaccompanied children, but also taking up the
    mantle in the fight against child labor exploitation, one of
    the dark sides of our Nation's history that, sadly, we continue
    to fight today. Now, every day in America--colleagues, every
    day in our United States of America, school-aged children wake
    up and get ready for their day. But instead of putting on their
    tennis shoes and their backpacks in cities and towns across the
    country, too many of them are putting on steel-toe boots and
    work belts.
        And they're preparing to climb roofs, operate hazardous
    machinery, brave scalding hot kitchens in conditions that most
    Americans thought were outlawed long ago. These children wake
    up before the sun comes up to find day labor jobs or work in
    hazardous conditions overnight in slaughterhouses. These are no
    exaggerations. I think most Americans would be right to think
    that Congress has already acted to prevent kids from working
    dangerous jobs for a long number of hours.
        But, because of the dire financial needs of their families
    back home, coupled with the disastrous immigration policies of
    the prior administration, and a repeated willingness of
    corporations to turn a blind eye, more and more unaccompanied
    immigrant children are slipping through the cracks. Since 2018,
    just the last 5 years--since 2018, the Labor Department has
    seen an increase of 69 percent in children found to be employed
    illegally. In some instances, that's meant kids as young as 12
    having to fight tired eyes during their school day only to go
    from there to work a night shift in a job.
        For others it's meant missing school entirely, whether it's
    to put in more hours to send more money back home to their
    families or just to pay their expenses and survive here in
    America. As we will hear today from our witnesses, there are a
    few contributing factors that enable this fundamental moral
    failure to play out. While there have been some failures along
    the way to properly vet sponsors, most if not all children
    placed with sponsors could benefit from post-release services,
    especially for vulnerable minors after they are released.
        But we can't ignore the root of this problem. The reality
    is that this problem is another direct result of our broken
    immigration system. During the Trump administration, our
    immigration system became so restrictive that families could
    not come to our border to apply for asylum together. This
    forced parents to send their kids alone so at least they could
    escape to find safety. And because of that policy, the kids who
    made it here are being put in heartbreaking positions.
    Positions that they likely wouldn't be in had their parents
    been able to lawfully seek asylum with them as our laws allow.
        And so, yes, there is a larger context to consider here.
    And too often I hear my Republican colleagues complain about
    border security but refuse to take up or vote for meaningful
    reforms to our immigration laws that enjoy bipartisan support.
    And somehow, they're shocked when they learn of migrant
    children working long hours overnight in hazardous conditions?
    Or they limit the labor shortage without working to tap into
    the enormous pool of labor available to us, that's historically
    been available to us through existing visa programs and other
    areas of our immigration system.
        Now, privately I hear a lot of support for modernizing our
    immigration laws and how it would be great for business, how
    it'd be great for their local economy, their State's economy,
    our national economy, but they withhold their support for
    expanding legal pathways for migrants to come here and help
    boost our economy. So we have to acknowledge the totality of
    this problem if we are to work together to update our outdated
    immigration system. And Mr. Chair, count me in as well. But, on
    top of that, as we've learned from multiple exposes over just
    the last several months, there is a pattern of willful
    ignorance that exists in America.
        It would be misleading to say that this exploitation was
    happening entirely in the shadows. The major corporations who
    benefit from this exploitation seem more than happy to turn the
    lights off, close the door, and count their profits. And often,
    when we learn of child labor violations we hear excuses by
    ownership passing the buck to subsidiaries and contractors. We
    hear corporate value statements reiterating zero tolerance
    policies, but those policies have become hard to take seriously
    when they're repeatedly issued for damage control.
        They fall flat when the dust settles. In April of this
    year, Senator Hickenlooper and I wrote to 27 CEOs of major U.S.
    companies asking about their compliance with child labor laws.
    And here's what we heard back, well-written, carefully worded
    responses, but not much accountability. So that's not enough
    for me, because if the very companies who are employing these
    children dozens of hours each week aren't willing to take
    ownership of their shortcomings then nothing will change.
        Yes, we have the laws on the books already, but now we need
    to support the Department of Labor and the Department of
    Justice in doing their work to enforce the law and hold
    employers accountable. So I'm looking to hearing more from our
    witnesses on just how dire conditions are for these children in
    reality today in the United States of America and what they see
    as a path forward to protect them, protecting children who
    should have never been in those circumstances to begin with.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Chair Durbin. Thanks, Senator Padilla. And I want to
    recognize the senior Senator from Texas, Senator Cornyn, who is
    the Ranking Member of the Immigration Subcommittee. Senator
    Cornyn.

                 OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN CORNYN,
                 A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS

        Senator Cornyn. Thank you, Chairman Durbin, for calling
    this hearing today in response to the letter we wrote on April
    the 27th. We mentioned in the letter that the first major
    indication of a problem with regard to what's happening to
    these children appeared in a Bloomberg story in 2021, which
    reported a Federal law enforcement investigation in which the
    Health and Human Services had released dozens of these children
    to the same sponsor--dozens to the same sponsor who exploited
    them for labor in upholstery processing and similar industries.
        And then, next year, Reuters reported that dozens of
    children had simply disappeared in the Houston area and that
    the Houston Police Department was struggling to try to locate
    them. And then, earlier this year The New York Times dropped
    two major investigative bombshell stories exposing widespread
    exploitation of unaccompanied children. We're talking about 13-
    , 14-, 15-year-old kids forced to work in meatpacking plants
    and food manufacturing facilities.
        Worse, The New York Times illustrated that senior Biden
    administration officials, like Secretary of Health and Human
    Services Xavier Becerra, knew--knew about the continued--about
    this and continued to move children out of Health and Human
    Services as fast as possible by loosening vetting requirements
    for sponsors. Two former officials were also aware of this
    scandal and that these children were being exploited on a major
    scale, that includes Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and White
    House Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice. To get to the bottom
    of this, my colleagues and I on this side requested the
    Chairman to bring these high-level Government officials in to
    get their explanation for what happened.
        And I'm disappointed that they could not be troubled to
    appear here today. The truth is they don't care. President
    Biden does not care about the fate of 300,000-plus
    unaccompanied children that have been placed with sponsors in
    the United States since he became President. President Biden
    and his administration can't tell you where these children are.
    His administration can't tell you what they are doing, what is
    being done to them. Whether they're being exploited for labor,
    whether they're being sex trafficked, whether they're being
    abused or neglected. They simply don't care. Because if they
    did care, they would do something different.
        So, while I appreciate the appearance of every witness here
    today, the truth is that nobody here today can shed light on
    the administration's policies and why they just simply decided
    to loosen vetting requirements. This is particularly relevant
    since last week the Office of Refugee Resettlement and Health
    and Human Services published the results of its self-audit,
    grading its own papers, and guess what? They gave themselves an
    A. They said, ``No problem. Everything's all right.'' And that
    they had adhered to their own loosened vetting requirements and
    placement processes for sponsors. But this claim is laughable.
        It would be laughable if it wasn't so sad, if it didn't
    make you angry, especially given the report in The New York
    Times which based on HHS's own data shows a massive increase in
    reports of abuse and neglect just months after President Biden
    came into office.
        [Poster is displayed.]
        Senator Cornyn. This chart, which I believe appeared in the
    New York Times story, shows that in 2018, the number of calls,
    reports of trafficking and abuse of migrant children. And you
    can see for yourself what happened since the time President
    Biden came into office.
        Those numbers are skyrocketing. But the truth is these are
    just the ones that people called in about or complained about.
    Where are the other 300,000 children? They can't tell you, and
    they don't care. Well, taking a step back, the UAC,
    unaccompanied alien children crisis, is a symptom of a larger
    problem, basically, that the Biden administration has through
    its policies fomented a crisis on the border by creating pull
    factors. They let you know ahead of time if you make it to the
    border under certain circumstances, you are going to be
    welcomed into the interior of the United States, never to be
    heard from again.
        Because only 12 percent of the people who actually show up
    for an asylum hearing actually qualify. But the transnational
    criminal organizations, the coyotes, the criminals who profit
    from this, they know that as long as they can continue to move
    people across the border into the United States that the Biden
    administration will not care, will not take steps to stop it.
    And we don't know what kind of human misery is being
    experienced. It ought to make everybody here angry. But it
    makes me angry that 108,000 Americans died last year of drug
    overdoses, including 71,000 from synthetic opioids from
    precursors shipped from China to Mexico and that come across
    the border.
        And the cartels know if you flood the border with children,
    with asylum seekers, and others, that Border Patrol will be
    overwhelmed. And so here comes the drugs, 108,000. And the
    Chairman mentioned DACA, the Deferred Action on Childhood
    Arrivals. These are young people who came as children who are
    now adults. And here we are 10 years later, there's not been
    one single bill marked up here in the Judiciary Committee or
    moved across the floor that would provide them some stability.
    And they've been tied up in litigation and are currently in
    litigation in the Southern District of Texas.
        So, while some people pay lip service to the need to do
    reforms to fix the problem, nothing is being done. Our friends
    on the Democratic side happen to control the Committees, then
    the agenda. Senator Schumer decides what bills are introduced
    in the Senate as a whole and marked up and voted on, on the
    floor. We need to do better than this. We must do better than
    this. We must show that we care about the fate of these
    children by doing our jobs. And we're not doing it so far.
        Chair Durbin. Thank you, Senator Cornyn. I'd like to make a
    couple points, if I may. The hearing today is an effort to
    learn more from experts in the field on what we're facing, but
    it is not the last hearing by any means. I have invited Senator
    Cornyn and Senator Graham to join Senator Padilla and myself
    and to send letters to the agencies which Senator Cornyn has
    mentioned for specific documentary evidence as to what has
    happened particularly in the area of sponsorship and
    responsibility for these children.
        I would say that the Biden administration recently faced
    the end of Title 42, which many people thought would lead to a
    dramatic increase in people at the border. The opposite is the
    case. And when it comes to children, over the last 30 days
    since the lifting of Title 42 the average encounters of
    unaccompanied children have dropped by more than 50 percent.
    That's good news. It's not sufficient, but it's a good move in
    the right direction. The solution for this problem facing
    America and many other countries is not to export these
    children, but it's rather to find a process that is orderly,
    that reduces the number who appear at the border on an
    unaccompanied basis, and reflects our values.
        So I think that's the ultimate goal we all should share,
    and I hope we can move toward that goal. I'm now going to
    introduce the----
        Senator Cornyn. Mr. Chairman, may I just ask a question?
        Chair Durbin. Sure.
        Senator Cornyn. Am I to understand that--and I appreciate
    it that you've called this hearing, but that you expect to have
    other hearings where we'll have the Government officials
    responsible for administering these programs as witnesses?
        Chair Durbin. That's my intention, Senator Cornyn.
        Senator Cornyn. Thank you for doing that.
        Chair Durbin. I think bringing these folks in to speak to
    us followed by the documentary evidence which we're asking for
    from the administration is the proper way to approach this. And
    I'd be glad to work with you in that regard. We continue to
    have annual oversight by this Committee of the relevant
    agencies that are under our jurisdiction. But, when it comes to
    ORR and HHS that is ordinarily outside our jurisdiction, but I
    think under the rubric of immigration law that we certainly can
    pursue that.
        Senator Cornyn. Mr. Chairman, if I could just--forgive me
    for responding, but I just--you know, it feels like we're
    trying to leverage the welfare of these unaccompanied children
    for a larger immigration bill that you and I have been talking
    about for decades and have been unsuccessful in getting
    accomplished. I just think it's unfair to these children to
    leverage their fate on some unrelated immigration legislation,
    just as I feel like it's unfair to the DACA recipients who are
    awaiting some congressional action while they have been
    languishing in court for the last 10 years.
        So that's what it feels like because we're saying we can't
    do anything in this area until we deal with unrelated
    immigration issues. Am I misconstruing what you're saying?
        Chair Durbin. Yes, you are. I haven't said that, and I
    don't intend that at all. We want to move on this problem
    because of the urgency involving vulnerable and unaccompanied
    children, period. Do I believe that the solution to this
    problem is comprehensive immigration reform? Yes. You know that
    it passed in the Senate years ago because of a bipartisan
    effort, and I hope we can return to that spirit. But no, I will
    not pin the fates of these children or DACA on some
    comprehensive package.
        I'm prepared to deal with any and all of them on an
    immediate basis if we have some understanding as to what can
    pass this Committee and ultimately be successful on the floor
    of the Senate.
        Senator Cornyn. Well, you know, Mr. Chairman, you and I
    have been talking about this for, my count, 20 years.
        Chair Durbin. And?
        Senator Cornyn. And nothing has happened.
        Chair Durbin. Well, you've got to start voting for an
    immigration bill if you believe in them.
        Senator Cornyn. Well, congratulations. They got it through
    the Senate, but it didn't pass the House.
        Chair Durbin. Well----
        Senator Cornyn. It wasn't signed into law. So what have we
    accomplished?
        Chair Durbin. Well, I wish you would have supported it. It
    would have been helpful. It was a bipartisan effort, and it
    passed the United States Senate. I'm looking for a bill that
    will win at least 60 votes on the floor. I hope we have that
    same ambition and goal. At this point, I want to introduce the
    panel of witnesses. I'll welcome the Democratic witnesses and
    then turn to Senator Cornyn for the Republican witnesses.
        Our first witness is Venus Bradley. She has a personal
    story to tell us. She's fostered five unaccompanied, non-
    citizen children and is adopting two sisters who came to the
    U.S. from Central America. Then, we have Lorie Davidson serving
    as vice president for Children and Family Services at Lutheran
    Immigration and Refugee Service. Our final majority witness is
    Terri Gerstein, director of the State and Local Law Enforcement
    Project at the Harvard Law School Center for Labor and a Just
    Economy, a senior fellow at the Economic Policy Institute.
    Senator Cornyn.
        Senator Cornyn. Lora Ries is the director of the Border
    Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation. She
    has over 26 years' experience in the immigration and homeland
    security arena and has worked for the Department of Homeland
    Security, the Department of Justice, and the House Judiciary
    Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims. She received her JD, as
    well as her BA, from Valparaiso University in Indiana.
        Anne Basham is the founder and chair of the
    Interparliamentary Task Force on Human Trafficking and the CEO
    of Ascend Consulting, a human rights advocacy firm. She
    previously served as a senior advisor for the Department of
    Justice, Office of Victims of Crime, where she helped develop
    strategies for more than $2 billion in Federal funding to
    address human trafficking, terrorism, sexual assault, and child
    abuse. She earned her master's degree from the University of
    Virginia. Thank you.
        Chair Durbin. Thank you, Senator Cornyn. After the
    witnesses take the oath, they'll each have 5 minutes to speak
    and then 5 minutes questioning from each Senator in the
    Committee. I'd ask the witnesses to please rise. Please raise
    your right hand.
        [Witnesses are sworn in.]
        Chair Durbin. Let the record reflect that the witnesses
    answered in the affirmative. Ms. Bradley, you're first.

               STATEMENT OF VENUS BRADLEY, FOSTER PARENT,
                         DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA

        Ms. Bradley. Thank you. My name is Venus Bradley. My
    husband and I have been foster parents in Durham, North
    Carolina, for the past 7 years. In that time, we have taken in
    25 children ranging in age from 2 to 17. Five of them have been
    immigrant children. In March 2020, we were placed with two
    sisters who were 15 and 17 at the time. I would like to share a
    little bit about their story and with their permission, of
    course. When they were 11 and 13, it was decided that they were
    going to be sent to America to come live with their father.
        Their mother was a palm oil plantation worker. She worked
    long days, and she had her first baby at 14 years old. She knew
    the life that her children were going to have, and she was
    worried about their future. Their uncle was in the military,
    and he was beheaded. They knew who did it, and they were told
    that if they went to the police they would be killed, too. So
    their mom made the difficult decision to have a trusted
    relative take them on the long journey to the Mexican border.
    There they were taken into custody.
        They were first taken to a detention center. They were
    immediately separated because one was a teenager, so she was
    put in a different room. And the younger one describes how she
    just cried for hours, along with a lot of other kids who cried
    long into the night. She says it was really cold. They were
    just given these little aluminum blankets and not much
    information. They didn't know what was going on, and they were
    there for 2 weeks. Eventually, they were moved to a children's
    home which was a little better. There were other kids there.
    There was school. They got to watch movies.
        But there were also a lot of rumors. And the girls met kids
    who had been there for 2 or 3 years. And so they were very
    concerned about what was going to happen. They were very
    scared, and they also were still separated. They weren't
    allowed to, you know, sleep in the same room or anything like
    that. So there was still a lot of fears there. After 6 weeks,
    which was a short time, they were eventually moved to their
    father. And that relationship was fine for a while, but
    eventually turned sour and they reported abuse, and they were
    taken into foster care.
        And when no safe relatives could be found, they were moved
    to us in foster care. When they came to us, they were very
    traumatized. They didn't trust adults. They had a lot of fear.
    The youngest had nightmares nightly. She had to take sleep aids
    to go to sleep. The oldest was very parentified, which means
    that she tried to be a mom to her little sister but didn't have
    any of the emotional skills to do it. And they really struggled
    in the beginning. And we tried to help them as much as we could
    with therapy, but it took a while before they were willing to
    trust and start dreaming of a future for themselves.
        We're going to fast forward now. My oldest is 20. She just
    graduated with a cosmetology degree. She's passed her State
    boards. She's already got two job offers. My youngest just
    graduated high school on Monday. She's been accepted into a 4-
    year college. She's going to major in business, and she wants
    to go into real estate, I think. And before you think that
    that's a happy ending, my girls still have a lot of obstacles
    that are in their way besides the employment authorization
    documents that we have struggled to get and maintain. And we
    also have a huge visa backlog.
        I was told it would take 3 to 8 years for my girls to get
    their green cards and that's after they've applied, which they
    did a year and a half ago. And so we are waiting, and they are
    eligible for nothing. They are not eligible for FAFSA. They're
    not eligible for student loans, scholarships, or even foster
    care finances. And that's been a real struggle for us trying to
    find them services and ways for them to grow and for them to
    actually be, you know, proud members of society, to be able to
    work, and eventually they hope to have their citizenships. They
    want to be American citizens.
        They are lucky they have us, but there's a lot of kids in
    the system who just--they don't get anything. And then, they
    have people who aren't supporting them and they're not getting
    any services to help provide for them and they're struggling.
    So my takeaway is that these are kids. They're just kids. They
    have dreams and hopes for the future, and like my daughters
    they deserve and need support and care in order to achieve
    their dreams. Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Bradley appears as a
    submission for the record.]
        Chair Durbin. Thank you, Ms. Bradley. Ms. Ries.

         STATEMENT OF LORA RIES, DIRECTOR, BORDER SECURITY AND
        IMMIGRATION CENTER, HERITAGE FOUNDATION, WASHINGTON, DC

        Ms. Ries. Chairman Durbin, Ranking Member Cornyn,
    Senators----
        Chair Durbin. Sorry, we can't hear you.
        Ms. Ries [continuing]. Thank you for inviting me to testify
    today on how we can ensure the safety and well-being of
    unaccompanied children. The historic border crisis our country
    is currently facing isn't only harming American communities and
    the integrity of our system, but migrants themselves,
    especially children many of whom arrive unaccompanied. Let's
    face it, this is a crisis within a crisis, and it began in 2008
    with passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection
    Reauthorization Act or TVPRA, a law that hasn't lived up to its
    name.
        If we really want to ensure the safety and well-being of
    these vulnerable children, we must be honest about what caused
    the crisis and how to end it. What started in the mid-1980s as
    the Flores class action lawsuit about immigration detention
    conditions for alien minors and to whom such minors may be
    released has turned into a multibillion-dollar legal regime
    that encourages unaccompanied minors to come on a treacherous
    journey to the U.S., requires the Federal Government to release
    them into the custody of sponsors who too often end up abusing
    or trafficking them, and according to DHS's Enforcement
    Lifecycle Report, results in 94 percent of them remaining in
    the U.S.
        Alejandro Mayorkas said repeatedly at the beginning and
    throughout his tenure as Secretary of Homeland Security that he
    would not send back unaccompanied minors. What did that tell
    parents, teenagers, and smugglers seeking to line their
    pockets? That this administration was opening the door wide
    open for unaccompanied minors to enter and stay in the U.S. And
    the parents, teens, and smugglers around the world heard it
    loud and clear. A historic 366,000 unaccompanied minors have
    been encountered just on the southwest border so far under the
    Biden administration.
        For those who closely follow border security, border data
    is tracked month by month. Yet after 28 months of record entry
    of unaccompanied minors, the Biden administration has not
    changed its policies to prevent such minors from coming here.
    Instead, the administration's response has been, ``Get them in
    faster.'' HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra was quoted by The New
    York Times complaining to staff about delays in releasing
    unaccompanied minors into the country, saying, quote, ``If
    Henry Ford had seen this in his plants, he would have never
    become famous and rich. This is not the way you do an assembly
    line,'' unquote.
        Secretary Mayorkas has likewise pushed for speedier
    processing of illegal aliens, including minors, into the U.S.
    In his joint proposed rule, Circumvention of Lawful Pathways,
    Secretary Mayorkas admits that the objective of the CBP One
    mobile application appointment scheme is for CBP, quote, ``to
    process more individuals than would otherwise be possible,''
    unquote. Like the border crisis itself, this administration's
    handling of unaccompanied minors is intentional. And beyond the
    historically high numbers, the results have been disastrous for
    the children involved and for Americans.
        Unaccompanied children are regularly raped and exploited on
    their journey to the U.S. and their lives, sadly, do not
    improve once they enter the U.S. They are turned over to
    questionable, if not dangerous, sponsors, forced to work in
    unsafe conditions that violate child labor laws, go missing by
    HHS, and are sex trafficked. Furthermore, MS-13 and other gang
    members, who are often teenagers, easily enter the U.S. as
    unaccompanied minors. Too many Americans and migrants have
    needlessly died at the hands of vicious gang members who were
    released into our communities.
        The Biden administration has also recently made the
    nonsensical decision to stop using DNA testing of suspected
    fake families at the border. The results are very predictable,
    a return to more child smuggling, child recycling, and
    trafficking. Say you're a family and we'll take your word for
    it. Both the title and intent of Section 235 of TVPRA is,
    quote, ``enhancing efforts to combat the trafficking of
    children,'' unquote.
        And yet, from the historic volume of unaccompanied minors
    enticed by the law, the careless release of these minors to
    inadequately vetted sponsors, and the multibillion-dollar
    windfall in profits this administration's open border policies
    have given the cartels, it is clear this administration is only
    creating more abuse, exploitation, and human trafficking.
    Section 235 of the TVPRA and the Flores court interpretation
    are abject failures. Instead of exploring ways to accommodate
    the current flow of unaccompanied children, Congress should
    accept that laws and judicial orders have resulted in terrible
    consequences, and it should replace them with a rational and
    effective system to prevent the unlawful and dangerous flow of
    unaccompanied minors into the U.S. Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Ries appears as a submission
    for the record.]
        Chair Durbin. Ms. Davidson.

     STATEMENT OF LORIE DAVIDSON, LCSW-C, VICE PRESIDENT, CHILDREN
    AND FAMILY SERVICES, LUTHERAN IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE SERVICE,
                          BALTIMORE, MARYLAND

        Ms. Davidson. Thank you, Chairman Durbin and Ranking Member
    Graham and Members of the Committee for the opportunity to
    appear----
        Chair Durbin. If you----
        Ms. Davidson [continuing]. Before you today.
        Chair Durbin [continuing]. Pull the microphone just a
    little bit closer. Appreciate it.
        Ms. Davidson. My name is Lorie Davidson, and I'm a licensed
    clinical social worker and the vice president for Children and
    Family Services at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.
    LIRS is a faith-based organization that has been serving
    refugees and immigrants for over 80 years, including
    unaccompanied children from all over the world.
        Chair Durbin. I'm sorry. You've got to use the microphone
    directly in front of you there.
        Ms. Davidson. Okay. Sorry about that. Is that better?
        Chair Durbin. Yes.
        Ms. Davidson. There we go. Okay.
        Chair Durbin. There we go.
        Ms. Davidson. Excellent. Children separated from their
    parents are among the most vulnerable populations. And when
    they arrive in the U.S., they frequently have limited support
    and significant difficulty accessing services in their
    communities. This is a result of language and cultural barriers
    and unfamiliarity with U.S. laws designed to protect children,
    such as labor laws and mandatory schooling. While considerable
    progress to safeguard UC has been made through legislation such
    as TVPRA, it is imperative that we provide additional safety
    measures both prior to and following the release of
    unaccompanied children to a sponsor.
        The custody of unaccompanied children falls within the
    purview of the Office of Refugee Resettlement which is a part
    of Health and Human Services. ORR is required to care for
    unaccompanied children until they are reunified with the
    sponsor. Prior to the release of unaccompanied children, ORR
    requires that potential sponsors complete a family
    reunification process which includes various types of
    background checks depending on the relationship of the minor
    and the proposed sponsor.
        Over the last decade, ORR has frequently changed the
    requirements for complying with background checks. Following
    the influx of 2014, where images of children under Mylar
    blankets flooded the news, ORR rolled back policies around
    background checks. The following year, Senators Portman and
    McCaskill held a hearing very similar to the one we are here
    today. By 2017, ORR stated that all required--ORR started
    requiring all categories of sponsors and household members to
    undergo extensive background checks.
        But, when the census became too high and children were
    being held in military bases, ORR began rolling back background
    check protections; 2021 brought additional changes in ORR's
    policies related to background checks. With the intention of
    releasing children to sponsors quickly, ORR adopted Field
    Guidance, which expedited releases and removed some background
    checks for certain categories of sponsors. During this period,
    cases of child labor exploitation were exposed in meatpacking
    plants. The recent cases of child labor highlighted by The New
    York Times echo the 2014 Ohio egg farm case.
        We must learn from our past mistakes. Rolling back
    background checks in times of influx cannot continue to be the
    solution to move children out of influx care facilities. ORR
    must consistently and appropriately vet sponsors based on their
    relationship to the child 100 percent of the time. LIRS
    recognizes that even when sponsors are thoroughly vetted,
    children may still find themselves in unsafe and exploitative
    situations. To mitigate these concerns, all children must be
    provided with access to in-person post-release services
    immediately following their unification with a sponsor.
        LIRS applauds ORR's efforts to expand the home study in
    post-release program. Unfortunately, there are over 18,000
    children who are waiting for home study post-release services.
    Some of whom have been on the waitlist since 2021. Post-release
    services are a highly effective way to mitigate the risk of
    exploitation and ensure the safety of children. But to do so,
    they must be implemented immediately following release and they
    must involve in-person visits. Additionally, UC need access to
    ongoing legal services post release.
        All unaccompanied children are in removal proceedings, yet
    most do not have access to legal counsel. This makes it very
    difficult for them to comply with their immigration case.
    Attorneys are also often the only trusted adult relationship
    that an unaccompanied child has and the only individual to help
    them understand their rights and to really understand if they
    are being exploited. Not only do attorneys screen children for
    protection cases, but they also assist in creating a
    repatriation plan if it's determined that it's safe for the
    child to return to their country.
        I believe that all children have a right to protection and
    that they're best cared for by their families. To ensure the
    safety and well-being of unaccompanied children in our
    communities, Congress must focus on improving protections and
    ensuring adequate resources to make sure that all unaccompanied
    children receive in-person post-release services immediately
    following their release, and that they have access to ongoing
    legal representation to safeguard against labor and other types
    of exploitation. Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Davidson appears as a
    submission for the record.]
        Chair Durbin. Thank you. Ms. Basham.

    STATEMENT OF ANNE BASHAM, FOUNDER AND CHAIR, INTERPARLIAMENTARY
       TASKFORCE ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING, FAIRFAX STATION, VIRGINIA

        Ms. Basham. Thank you so much. Thank you, Chairman Durbin,
    Ranking Member Graham, and all Members of the Committee. It is
    an honor to testify before you today. And in this hearing, we
    have the opportunity to discuss one of the most important human
    rights issues facing our country right now. And that is the
    safety and well-being of unaccompanied children. To put this to
    you plainly, in March of this year, more than 12,000
    unaccompanied children crossed the U.S. border, and this number
    has remained relatively consistent month after month.
        Many of these children were between the ages of 11 and 15,
    the prime age targeted by sex trafficking. I am a mother of two
    teenage girls squarely within this age range, and I am
    especially distraught at the thought of the physical and sexual
    violence, human degradation, hunger, thirst that many of these
    children have experienced en route to the United States. And
    sadly, this is a prelude to the violence that many experience
    once they are in the U.S. when promises of a better life are
    shattered and many are sold repeatedly for sex and forced
    labor.
        To address the root, though, I believe it is important to
    first understand who is crossing the southern border. And I
    know this was touched on earlier by Chairman Durbin, and I
    appreciate it: 47 percent of unaccompanied children were
    apprehended in the United States from--or were apprehended in
    the United States come from Guatemala, while an additional 40
    percent come from Honduras and El Salvador. Last year, I was
    invited to speak at the Guatemalan Congress on the intersection
    between human trafficking and transnational crime.
        I have met Guatemala's President Giammattei. And
    Guatemala's Secretary Against Sexual Violence Sandy Recinos is
    a colleague and a member of the International Human Trafficking
    Task Force that I lead. In February of last year, Guatemala
    passed a law which increased prison sentences for human
    smugglers from 2 to 5 years to 10 to 30 years. Guatemalan
    leadership clearly do not want their children to leave their
    country with smugglers, nor do they want their children to face
    the unspeakable violence that often awaits them on the journey
    to and after arrival in the United States.
        Prior to arriving in the United States, these children and
    their parents are frequently in remote regions of Central
    American countries which are impoverished and somewhat isolated
    because of language barriers, which is not something that's
    often talked about. For example, Guatemala alone has 24
    different dialects. This means that it's difficult to
    communicate with parents the incredible risks that their
    children face if they leave in search of a better life. Coyotes
    are in a business, and they often trick or coerce mothers into
    paying children's hefty smuggling fees.
        And the mothers do this because they believe that a better
    life awaits their children in the United States. Unfortunately,
    for many children this is simply not the case. Human
    trafficking is big business, and unlike other human rights
    abuses, it is a transnational organized crime, and it is the
    second largest criminal enterprise in the world. It is only
    surpassed by drug trafficking. It generates more than $150
    billion annually for traffickers, and it actually funds every
    nation and movement that is currently threatening the security
    of our world today.
        And that is why there is a critical intersection between
    human trafficking and illicit finance networks. For example, to
    put this globally, the Taliban particularly support their
    operations through the opium trade. And sex trafficking is a
    key component of their funding apparatus. Unlike drugs or
    weapons, however, a person can be sold over and over again. MS-
    13, one of the most notorious gangs operating in Guatemala,
    Honduras, and El Salvador, the three countries I mentioned,
    they operate similarly.
        In 2015, the U.S. Treasury Department found that money
    generated by local MS-13 clicks engaged in sex trafficking,
    drug trafficking, murder for hire, extortion, money
    laundering--and I'm going to quote the U.S. Treasury Department
    ``consolidated and funneled to the group's leadership in
    Central America.'' All of these factors contribute to a
    heightened risk of human trafficking, especially for children.
    Many of the Latin American children sent across the border
    alone or with smugglers have been taken by organized criminals
    and the cartels.
        And what frequently follows, as we know and has been said
    here, is child sex trafficking or labor exploitation. We all
    know the story of The New York Times and the labor
    exploitation. But the Department of Homeland Security's HSI has
    been involved in the prosecution of sex trafficking cases
    involving children as young as 14 who were funneled across a
    human pipeline from Mexico to New York City. Other
    unaccompanied children enter the U.S. foster care system. And
    for children who have been raped, beaten, exploited, or starved
    on the long journey, this can be a very welcome transition.
    They are free from coyotes. They're shuttled through a version
    of the American life, but the U.S. foster care system is no
    sure haven.
        Certainly, many U.S. families open their doors. They do it
    with integrity and self-sacrifice. My own parents were actually
    foster parents, and I was a foster sibling. And I applaud
    people like Venus Bradley here today who give these vulnerable
    children loving homes. We need more like that. But what we
    know, and this is so important for everyone to hear, is that
    the U.S. foster care system is already overly burdened with the
    number of children in the system outpacing the number of
    available families to provide a safe home.
        And additional to that, we know that U.S.-born children in
    foster care are already the most vulnerable to trafficking. In
    fact, 60 percent--remember this, 60 percent of trafficking
    victims have been in the foster care system at one time. So
    increasing burdens on the foster care system also puts
    vulnerable children more firmly in the crosshairs of
    traffickers. So there's so much more I could say, but I know in
    2015 that President Obama made an incredible statement and he
    said, ``To the people of Latin America, don't send your
    children unaccompanied, they may not make it.''
        If more Central American parents knew the truth of what
    their children would experience, many would think again before
    relinquishing them into the hands of violent criminals. And so
    I want to close with this, our country is divided on many
    issues. We know this. But on this we can all agree no child
    should be trafficked, and no child should be abused. And
    because of this I'm very hopeful that there are creative,
    compassionate, and comprehensive solutions. And I thank you
    again, Chairman Durbin, Ranking Member Graham, and the rest of
    the Committee for your time and attention to this. Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Basham appears as a
    submission for the record.]
        Chair Durbin. Thank you, Ms. Basham. Ms. Gerstein.

        STATEMENT OF TERRI GERSTEIN, DIRECTOR, STATE AND LOCAL
       ENFORCEMENT PROJECT, CENTER FOR LABOR AND A JUST ECONOMY,
                 HARVARD LAW SCHOOL, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK

        Ms. Gerstein. Good morning, Chairman Durbin, Ranking Member
    Graham, and distinguished Members of the Committee. Thank you
    for the opportunity to testify today. To lay some initial
    groundwork, no one is against teenagers having jobs. What our
    child labor laws prohibit is work that is damaging to children
    in two ways. First, employers can't assign children to too many
    hours or to work at certain times of day like the night shift
    because of the harm to kids' education. Second, employers are
    not allowed to have children working on a set of hazardous
    occupations.
        These jobs were chosen based on injury and fatality data,
    and they're among the most dangerous jobs for adults, so even
    more so for children who are at higher risk of workplace
    injuries. As we've heard, we are currently experiencing a
    serious upsurge in child labor violations. The Federal Labor
    Department reports a 69 percent increase in violations in the
    last 5 years. And of course, there's been extensive media
    reporting on this as well. These cases affect children who are
    immigrants and also children born here. Some cases involve
    companies we all know.
        Chipotle, for example, paid over $9 million for child labor
    violations in Massachusetts and New Jersey. Other cases involve
    processing of products many of us eat every day like Cheerios.
    In Alabama, teenagers were working on manufacturing auto parts
    for a Hyundai supplier. In the most striking case, the Federal
    Labor Department found over 100 minors in several States
    working the night shift at meatpacking plants operated by large
    meat companies like JBS and Cargill. The children were working
    for a sanitation contractor, PSSI, that cleans the plants at
    night.
        Children were cleaning the conveyor belt and meat
    processing machines, for example. Some had chemical burns. Some
    were missing classes or falling asleep in school. This work was
    performed at the facilities of some of the biggest meat
    corporations in the world. All children are vulnerable at work,
    but immigrant children, as we've heard, are at heightened risk.
    They face language barriers, have uncertain legal status,
    limited access to resources, and they don't know U.S. laws or
    their workplace rights. As a result, too many have ended up in
    workplaces that knowingly flout our child labor laws.
        Economists have posited that unethical employers'
    compliance with the law is a function of two things, the
    likelihood of detection and the gravity of potential
    consequences. Our current system is inadequate on both fronts.
    Three changes would help. First, the Labor Department needs far
    more resources. The Wage and Hour Division enforces our child
    labor laws, as well as a minimum wage and a bucket of other
    statutes. The Division currently has around 800 investigators
    to cover all of those laws in the entire country.
        That's about 165 million workers and around 11 million
    workplaces covered by these laws, and we have only 800
    investigators to do this work. These staffing numbers are eye-
    poppingly low. They're also historically low relative to prior
    decades, even though the economy has massively grown throughout
    the decades. Second, we need to hold lead corporations
    responsible for violations in their supply chains. When these
    cases come to light, large corporations deflect responsibility
    and point to contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and
    staffing agencies.
        Major corporations have the power to prevent violations.
    They can set contractual standards in their supply chains,
    monitor subcontractors, and make it clear they will stop
    working with anyone who violates child labor laws. They can
    also bring jobs in-house. If we really want to stop the
    exploitation of children, we need legal accountability at the
    top of the chain. This would mean strict liability for child
    labor violations in a supply chain, or at the very least,
    strict liability for repeat or widespread violations.
        It would also mean the Government refusing to contract with
    lead corporations that have oppressive child labor in their
    supply chains. Third, we need stronger penalties. There are
    currently bills in Congress proposing this, which should be
    passed. But even very high penalties won't do enough if
    employers think they'll never be caught and if lead
    corporations never face consequences. This hearing is about
    ensuring the safety and well-being of unaccompanied children.
    The problem of oppressive child labor stems from unscrupulous
    employers violating the law. If employers didn't hire children
    for too many hours or assign them to do dangerous work, our
    child labor crisis would not exist. I believe we can do better.
    When teenagers go to work, migrants or U.S. born, we can and
    must keep them safe. I look forward to your questions.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Gerstein appears as a
    submission for the record.]
        Chair Durbin. Thank you very much for your testimony. It's
    a cliche on this side of the table to say that our immigration
    system is broken. But when you hear the testimony of these five
    witnesses, you can't reach any other conclusion. From one end
    of the table to the other, you have given us a litany of
    failings of our current immigration laws. And sadly, most of
    those failings that you've talked about really relate to
    innocent and vulnerable young people who were caught up in a
    circumstance that was not their choice and whose lives are at
    stake in the process many times over. That is the reality. Ms.
    Bradley, thank you--you and your family for reaching out to
    help so many others. The two daughters that you've adopted, can
    both of them now legally work in the United States?
        Ms. Bradley. They can. Thanks to our Congresswoman, we were
    able to push through their employment authorization cards so
    that they didn't expire. So they are both eligible to work
    full--yes, one of them has a job. She's worked for 2 years, and
    the other one is able to work at a salon as soon as she signs
    the contract. So yes.
        Chair Durbin. As you mentioned, they do not qualify for
    many government programs that other children may be eligible
    for. At this point, do you see them--let me ask you, what is
    their immigration status at this moment?
        Ms. Bradley. At this point, they have a special immigration
    juvenile status, which they got when they came into foster
    care. It was approved by a judge, and they applied for their
    green cards in December 2021. And we're told we just have to
    wait three to 8 years for that to come. So that's their current
    status.
        Chair Durbin. I hope it's only 8 years.
        Ms. Bradley. Yes.
        Chair Durbin. Ms. Davidson, you've talked about attorneys
    representing these young people and said they don't all have
    legal counsel. Is that correct?
        Ms. Davidson. That is correct.
        Chair Durbin. Do they have any representation at all?
        Ms. Davidson. So, sadly, most children do not, and we want
    to make sure that kids have access.
        Chair Durbin. If you could get closer to the microphone----
        Ms. Davidson. Yes, sorry.
        Chair Durbin [continuing]. I'd appreciate it.
        Ms. Davidson. Most children do not have legal counsel, and
    it's so important because it helps them comply with their
    immigration case, but it also gives them that trusted adult
    relationship to make sure that they have someone that they can
    talk to if they're concerned about their rights.
        Chair Durbin. What about the phenomena that I've heard
    described where it's difficult to have a sponsor or even a
    member of the family to step forward because they're worried
    because of their own immigration status, of identifying
    themselves to the Government to unite with the children? Have
    you run into that situation?
        Ms. Davidson. Yes, absolutely. I think, you know,
    particularly under the last administration when it was made
    clear that sponsor information would be used against them in
    immigration enforcement. So it is really difficult for sponsors
    to come forward. And we want these kids to comply with their
    immigration case because that's where they're guaranteed a
    right to have their case heard before a judge.
        Chair Durbin. Ms. Basham, this sexual trafficking and
    sexual abuse that takes place, I mentioned earlier that I met
    with some of the migrants that were sent to Chicago from Texas
    when the Governor decided to send them up, and sat down with
    them for several hours to talk about their experiences. There
    were no children involved in this interview process, at least
    of an age that they could tell me much. But I do recall a young
    woman who was about 30 years old who could have sat at this
    panel and looked like she was at home. She was a college
    graduate who made that trip to the U.S.-Mexican border, and she
    clearly was raped in the process.
        So the worst case, obviously, is human--pardon me, child
    sexploitation. But it happens obviously at many different
    levels, and yet they still make the journey knowing that danger
    lies ahead. I couldn't agree with you more that we have to find
    a way to educate, as President Obama tried with his statement,
    the families in these other countries about the dangers if they
    try to make this journey. What more do you think we could do at
    this point?
        Ms. Basham. So that's a question that takes a lot more than
    40 seconds to answer. But I'll tell you, one of the things
    that's currently in Congress that will help right now is--I
    know TVPA is controversial, but there's a portion of the
    Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Protection Act that
    should be introduced shortly, and it deals with prevention
    education. And I will tell you that when it comes to human
    trafficking, the biggest gap is in victim identification. Less
    than 1 percent of victims are ever identified. And if in
    general we had more prevention education and more children were
    able to come forward themselves and self-identify, if more
    teachers were able to identify, we would see a dramatic result
    throughout the country. So I think that's one legislative fix
    that's actually currently going to be in Congress shortly.
        Chair Durbin. Thank you very much. Senator Cornyn.
        Senator Cornyn. Thank you to all the witnesses for being
    here today and sharing your perspective. I'd like to start with
    you, Ms. Basham. You've talked about the scourge, what I would
    call the evil of human trafficking. And you described the
    transit or the path of many of the victims of human trafficking
    from their home country up to the border. And then, of course,
    we've talked a little bit about how many of these children are
    unaccounted for now once they've been placed with sponsors in
    the country. Do you consider the status quo compassionate or
    humane?
        Ms. Basham. So I can't speak to current immigration--I'm
    not going to speak today to current immigration policy, but I
    will tell you that currently in the United States, there are
    far too many children who are falling through the cracks. That
    is very obvious. That's something we can all agree with. So I
    think there are--absolutely when it comes to compassionate
    responses, the most compassionate is to make sure that every
    child has a loving family and very clearly most of the children
    coming or a lot of the children coming across the border, it's
    a nightmarish experience, to put it mildly. And that's where--
    well, I'll leave it with that.
        Senator Cornyn. Well, like, I wonder, you know, why would
    we expect any different outcome when the people who are mainly
    in charge of immigration policy in this country are the
    transnational criminal organizations that get rich smuggling
    people from their home country, perhaps across the border into
    the United States? This is a huge money-making proposition. As
    someone pointed out to me years ago, the cartels are really
    commodity agnostic, and I found that to be a strange way to
    describe it. But, basically, they said they don't care about
    smuggling people or money, anything that's going to make them
    money--or drugs, I should have said. They don't care whether
    they're smuggling people or drugs or anything else, weapons for
    that matter, all they care about is the money.
        And Ms. Ries, I know you've spent a lot of time looking at
    the current policies. But I would wonder if you could talk a
    little more about what you see as the consequences of the
    current policy with regard to the welfare of these children
    once they are placed with sponsors and the fact that there are
    no follow-on services that are routinely available. In fact,
    the administration doesn't even know where these children are.
    Could you talk about the welfare of the child or these
    children?
        Ms. Ries. Yes. In addition to the journey being horrific,
    as has been described by many, conditions are not necessarily
    better once they're here. And due to the volume of
    unaccompanied children among the volume of other illegal aliens
    coming to the U.S., HHS is releasing them very quickly. They've
    lowered their standards for vetting, and so some dangerous
    sponsors are taking them in. And we are seeing that HHS is not
    able to make contact with many of these unaccompanied children,
    85,000 is a number that has been cited.
        And if it is their responsibility for the care of these
    children, at the very least, it is key that enough information
    is shared and followed up on by HHS, by ORR. But you have to go
    upstream. And what is causing this is the very strong pull
    factors for unaccompanied minors to either be sent here or come
    on their own in the case of some older teens. If you turn off
    that magnet, you resolve a lot of these downstream effects.
        Senator Cornyn. So you mentioned the pull factors, which is
    what the Border Patrol has routinely told me. And of course,
    coming from Texas with a 1200-mile common border, I've spent a
    lot of time along the border talking to the people who deal
    with this public health and safety crisis, this humanitarian
    crisis on a regular basis. But they talk in terms of the push
    factors which are things like violence and poverty. We all
    understand why those would push people to take this risky
    avenue of submitting themselves to criminal organizations to be
    smuggled into another country.
        But talk a little more about the pull factors. These are
    things that the current policy does to actually make it easier
    for the cartels to smuggle people into the United States. And
    actually, it tells people, in effect, that we've got the
    welcome mat out, so please come.
        Ms. Ries. Right. When the border has been thrown open, when
    Secretary Mayorkas has said we will not return unaccompanied
    minors, when whether minors or family units are then released
    into the communities of the U.S., those are the strongest pull
    factors for more illegal immigration. The President, the Vice
    President, the Secretary can tell people, ``Don't come,'' but
    it is the results that are the strongest pull factor. When
    people south of the border learn that their friend, their
    family member got into the U.S., went to their location of
    choice in the U.S., is able to work, etc., that's the strongest
    message that goes back to both the cartels, the smugglers, and
    then more future illegal aliens.
        Senator Cornyn. Thank you.
        Chair Durbin. Senator Whitehouse.
        Senator Whitehouse. Thank you very much. Ms. Gerstein,
    there are right now States around the country attempting to
    weaken child labor protections. What do those efforts to weaken
    child labor protections portend for unaccompanied children?
        Ms. Gerstein. So yes, those are very disturbing
    developments, 14 States have had bills proposing to weaken
    child labor laws in the last couple of years. Two States have
    already passed laws weakening child labor laws, Arkansas and
    Iowa. These laws are going to put kids at risk. More kids are
    going to be in dangerous work. Iowa, for example, in certain
    circumstances is going to allow children to be working in
    hazardous occupations that are prohibited by Federal law. And
    this isn't just a question of cutting red tape.
        It's going to result in kids actually being in workplaces
    that are truly dangerous for them. I would note also that in
    Iowa--the Fair Labor Standards Act, our Federal law, is a floor
    and all employers have to follow that. And so, in Iowa, passing
    a law like this actually puts employers in a bad situation
    because it can be very confusing to them. They could be
    following the State law and find themselves facing Federal
    penalties. So the entire trend is the opposite of what we need
    right now both for U.S.-born kids, for immigrant kids, and
    unaccompanied minors.
        Senator Whitehouse. And speaking of Federal child labor
    violations, how well can major companies insulate themselves
    from accountability for persistent child labor violations
    through the use of subcontractors and staffing agencies?
        Ms. Gerstein. Many major corporations do insulate
    themselves from responsibility or try to deflect responsibility
    through using subcontractors, suppliers, staffing agencies, and
    more. Our labor law, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the
    definition of employee is to suffer or permit to work, which is
    extremely broad and really should include these circumstances.
    But the caselaw has developed in a way that makes it very hard
    to go up the chain and find a corporation to be a joint
    employer. That is something that should be fixed. There should
    be strict liability, as I said, either in regard to supply
    chains in general or certainly for repeat or widespread
    violations.
        Senator Whitehouse. Thank you. Ms. Davidson, as I
    understand it, unaccompanied children don't have a right in
    immigration proceedings to have legal counsel appointed, and
    they don't even have a right to have a guardian ad litem. I
    don't think there's a courtroom in the country where a minor
    would be put in the position of having to represent themselves
    without even a guardian ad litem. Is that a defensible
    situation? Should we try to repair that? How big of a problem
    is this problem of a lone child having to defend him or herself
    in an immigration proceeding?
        Ms. Davidson. Yes, most children do not have legal
    representation. Most unaccompanied children are trying to
    navigate this process on their own with language barriers and
    cultural barriers. And so giving access to legal counsel for
    children post release is critical. All of these children are in
    removal proceedings. We want them all to comply with their
    immigration case. And to do that they need to have someone
    who's helping them to navigate that process, so they can stay
    in compliance and the judge can determine whether or not they
    have a right to stay.
        Senator Whitehouse. It strikes me, having spent a fair
    amount of time in the law, that whether you're in family court
    or whether you're in a civil proceeding or whether you're in
    juvenile proceedings, minors don't appear in those matters
    without either legal representation or a guardian ad litem or
    both. And I'm wondering if you can think of any other
    proceedings in which children appear without benefit of either
    legal representation or a guardian?
        Ms. Davidson. I do not know of any other circumstances in
    which a 3-year-old would have to represent themselves in court.
    It is indefensible.
        Senator Whitehouse. Yes. Thank you very much. Thanks,
    Chairman.
        Chair Durbin. Senator Tillis.
        Senator Tillis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you all for
    being here. And Mr. Chair, I understand that you and Senator
    Cornyn agree that we will be hearing from administration at a
    future hearing and getting the data. I think that that's very,
    very important if we want to solve a complex problem. The
    subject that we're discussing today is one part of a--it's
    really not that difficult policy proposition, but for the
    politics, but what I hear people on either end of the political
    spectrum here blame one administration or another.
        The only thing that I believe is absolutely true is for
    about the last 40 years there have been bipartisan failures.
    Under Republican administrations, we can point back to 1986
    with Reagan's decision to provide amnesty that created some of
    the pressures on the border. And each of the administrations
    I've observed, they've all failed. We haven't solved the
    problem. When you get into this, the reason why it's so
    important for us to get data is we've got to understand and
    come up with a common understanding of the problem.
        If we have child labor--if we have any person working
    because they're essentially forced to, the person who made the
    decision to hire them should be subject to criminal penalties
    and fines, just simply--that simple. Let's talk about policies
    to do that. But then, let's also talk about the reality that 80
    percent of the people who come to the United States and claim
    asylum are ultimately adjudicated as not having a credible fear
    claim. So how many of these children were carried across the
    border, were subjected to the kinds of atrocities that I have
    firsthand accounts of, being down at the border several times,
    because someone made a decision to come to this country, put
    their children at risk, and not have a valid, credible fear
    claim?
        What about the families that leave one country, transit to
    a safe third country, and instead of choosing to apply for
    asylum there, then risk their child's life and limb by crossing
    the Rio Grande river? Every single person crossing the border
    now, if they want a good chance of surviving, have to pay a
    toll to the transnational criminal organizations. It was
    estimated that a year and a half ago, transnational criminal
    organizations were making $800 million a year in human
    trafficking. I fully believe that many of these children who
    find themselves having to work, is in part having to pay the
    toll that they had to pay to get across the border.
        Depending upon the country, that can range anywhere from
    about $5,000 to $50,000. So the reason that we wanted a hearing
    is to baseline each and every one of the challenges that we're
    confronted with and address them separately. I personally
    believe that a parent who chooses to subject their children to
    all of the risks that come from transiting the southern border
    should be held accountable if in fact they had an opportunity
    to go to a safe third country, get them out of what I will
    stipulate was a dangerous situation in their country of origin.
    But why on earth would you not try and take the safest path to
    get here legally?
        Why on earth wouldn't you stop in a safe third country and
    say, ``I have a difficult, dangerous situation in my country. I
    have documentation to prove it, and I'm applying for asylum''?
    What's wrong with that? So, sooner or later, we have to talk
    about the reality that parents are making bad decisions in the
    thousands. Eighty percent folks, 80 percent of the people who
    apply for asylum are adjudicated by Democrat, Independent, and
    Republican judges as not having a valid, credible fear claim.
    That's a big number.
        So we have to start looking at this and teasing through it
    and then getting to immigration policies that work. Most people
    know that I've been on every bipartisan effort to try and get
    immigration reform, border security done since I've been in
    Congress for the last 9 years. But then, we talk past
    ourselves. We say, ``Well, if we just have guest worker
    programs.'' What we don't talk about is how labor unions want
    to artificially increase the rates to the point to where you
    just won't have those jobs in the United States, and they could
    be living wage jobs. But that dirty little secret from the left
    never gets brought up, but it's real and we can point to
    proposals where that's a problem.
        But I'll tell you who's watching this hearing probably more
    than anybody else. It's the cartels. When you grow an
    enterprise to $800 million a year, you can get pretty
    sophisticated. And we're letting the cartels play us like a
    piano by talking past each other and not coming up with
    sustainable, smart solutions to immigration reform,
    humanitarian accommodations for the families who are truly at
    risk and the children, and all of these other things that we
    could be working on. But my guess is in this hearing, we'll
    talk past each other quite a bit, and we're at risk of going
    another 4 or 5 years if we don't get this right in this
    Congress without any solution at all.
        And the kids suffer, Border Patrol agents will die, 100,000
    people will die of fentanyl overdoses and we'll be so close,
    but people do not have the political courage to step up and
    solve this problem. That's on us. It's not on you. Thank you,
    Mr. Chair.
        Chair Durbin. Thanks, Senator Tillis. Senator Padilla.
        Senator Padilla. Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I referenced in
    my opening remarks, there's significant reporting just in the
    last several months alone by NBC News and The New York Times
    calling our attention to the labor violations found by the
    Department of Labor. Migrant children being exploited for their
    labor. So, in response to the reporting, as you partnered with
    Senator Hickenlooper to send letters to 27 CEOs of the major
    companies accused of the wrongdoing in that most recent round
    of reporting.
        Our letter demanded they take immediate steps to stop the
    ill treatment of children. And according to the findings and
    the reporting, migrant children have reportedly been working in
    unsafe conditions, in hazardous conditions, and in other
    unlawful circumstances. We asked the CEOs to carefully examine
    their hiring procedures. We asked them to examine their
    workplace safety policies, and we asked them to review their
    compliance with wage and hour laws to prevent any further
    exploitation of children and to share with us their
    assessments.
        Now, their responses were--how should I say this?--
    overwhelmingly lackluster, often filled with finger pointing,
    ``Not our fault, it's a subcontractor issue.'' ``Not our fault,
    it's a subsidiary issue.'' Anything, but actually taking
    accountability. One would think that the Fair Labor Standards
    Act would protect all children from labor exploitation at all
    levels of the supply chain, but there's clearly a breakdown. My
    first question is for Ms. Gerstein. Can you explain the
    challenges that exist in enforcing child labor protections at
    all levels of the supply chain, and what would you encourage
    Congress to do to ensure that children are better protected?
        Ms. Gerstein. So you're absolutely right. The lead
    corporations do point a finger and deflect responsibility to
    suppliers and subcontractors and staffing agencies. The Fair
    Labor Standards Act defines employee very broadly, but caselaw
    treats it very narrowly and makes it very hard to get
    accountability up the supply chain. What is needed is--the
    challenge is in enforcing child labor protections, one is the
    funding limitations on the Federal Department of Labor. They're
    grossly underfunded relative to the need. Another challenge is
    the difficulty in going up the supply chain.
        These cases also are very resource intensive and difficult
    to enforce. If you look at the Federal Department of Labor's
    PSSI case, it was an investigation that involved 100--they
    found over 100 minors working at multiple States. They did
    surveillance and warrants and multiteam investigator
    investigations and interviewing many, many reluctant witnesses.
    These cases are hard to do, and the Department of Labor really
    needs the resources to do them effectively. In terms of
    liability up the supply chain, strict liability for the lead
    corporations for violations in their supply chain or at least
    strict liability when there are repeat or widespread
    violations.
        And also Government contracting, the Government can use its
    contracting abilities to not do business with lead corporations
    that have these violations in their supply chains.
        Senator Padilla. Thank you. Now, on a different note, I do
    want to tell my Republican colleagues that there is actually an
    agreement. It's undeniable that we need to crack down on
    dangerous cartels and traffickers who exploit children. It's
    absolutely necessary. However, we must also recognize that
    parents and relatives who flee persecution should not be
    treated as criminals merely for trying to keep their children
    alive. Implementing policies, as the last administration did,
    that aims to criminalize these individuals inevitably leads to
    family separations, inflicting harm upon children, leaving them
    even more susceptible to exploitation.
        Policies such as the Title 42 Public Health Order, right?
    It was a public health order, not an immigration law, which
    denied adults the chance to seek asylum, often left parents
    facing an agonizing choice. They were forced to decide between
    either staying with their children and risking continued
    persecution for the entire family or providing at least their
    children with an opportunity for stability and safety. So this
    policy created a dilemma that had profound consequences for
    many, many families, often leading to the heart-wrenching
    decisions and the exacerbation of vulnerabilities. Ms.
    Davidson, you testified that the continuous application of the
    Homeland Security Act of 2002, the TVPRA, and Flores is
    critically important to protecting kids from exploitation. Can
    you explain why a break in procedure has proven to be so
    harmful?
        Ms. Davidson. Yes, absolutely. When we're talking about
    these protections, this is the bare minimum. We're talking
    about things like giving a child access to food and water and
    to be held in humane conditions. And if we were to roll back
    any of those protections and not look at children in terms of
    their best interests and to make sure that they are in the
    least restrictive setting, that they're unified with their
    sponsor quickly, if we roll those back, we are putting children
    in grave danger. We saw over half a dozen children die in CBP
    custody under the Trump administration. And so we really have
    to prioritize these protections and make sure that they are in
    place for unaccompanied children.
        Senator Padilla. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
        Chair Durbin. Thank you, Senator Padilla. Senator Hawley.
        Senator Hawley. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm glad we're
    having this hearing. And thank you to all of the witnesses.
    Thank you for being here. I want to visit with you in just a
    second. But I just want to reiterate something that I heard the
    Chairman say that I agree with, which is that there really
    ought to be Government witnesses sitting there. And I tell you
    what I'm tired of. I've had Secretary Mayorkas sit in front of
    me in a different Committee, the Homeland Security Committee,
    where I asked him at length about the outrage of 250,000
    migrant children unaccompanied crossing the border in the last
    2 years and tens of thousands of them being sold into slavery.
        Let's not mince words. They've been sold into slavery. When
    kids are being put into factories, forced to work overnight,
    forced to work in terrible conditions, they're not getting
    paid, they're not going to school, sometimes they're not
    getting fed, that's slavery. And what I heard from Secretary
    Mayorkas--don't take my word for it, you go look at the record,
    read the transcript. What he told me was, ``Oh, it's not my
    problem. We don't have anything to do with it. Not my
    problem.'' Now, we have a new report from HHS where they say
    it's not their problem. Amazing how this works. Nobody's
    responsible.
        These kids are literally being sold as slaves in the United
    States of America in the year 2023 and nobody's responsible.
    They don't want to come and testify to this Committee. You bet
    they don't. They don't want to be put under oath. They don't
    want to answer any questions. They don't want cameras here.
    They don't want to take any responsibility. Well, I tell you,
    it's somebody's fault. It's not the kids' fault. Thank God for
    The New York Times. A phrase I never thought would come out of
    my mouth.
        But really, I mean, thank the Lord that The New York Times
    did these series of reports, because otherwise we'd still be
    fed the lies--the lies from this administration that everything
    is fine and dandy, ``We know just where the kids are. It's all
    great. They're all fine.'' No, it's not.
        Is it fine that people like Carolina Yoc, who's 15 years
    old--and I apologize to her if I mispronounced her name. She's
    one of the folks, one of the young women that The New York
    Times caught up with. What is she doing? Midnight in Grand
    Rapids, Michigan, a conveyor belt carrying bags of Cheerios
    past a cluster of young workers.
        Carolina, every 10 seconds, has to stuff a sealed plastic
    bag of cereal into a passing yellow carton. It's dangerous
    work, fast-moving pulleys and gears that had torn off fingers
    and ripped open a woman's scalp. The factory was full of
    underage workers like Carolina, who'd crossed the southern
    border by themselves, vulnerable, now spending late nights bent
    over hazardous machinery in violation of child labor laws.
    Carolina says, ``Sometimes I get tired and feel sick.'' Her
    stomach often hurts. She was unsure if that was because of the
    lack of sleep, the stress from the incessant roar of the
    machines, or the worries she had for herself and her family in
    Guatemala.
        This is totally, utterly, completely unacceptable. And I am
    sick unto death of this administration coming before this
    Congress and saying, ``It's not our fault. We have nothing to
    do with it. We don't know where they are. The kids are fine.
    Somebody will do it. Somebody will get around to it.''
    Ridiculous. Let's look at some of the things that we've learned
    about what's going on over at HHS that Secretary Becerra is
    doing. Here are some quotes from employees at HHS.
        [Poster is displayed.]
        Senator Hawley. At least five Health and Human Services
    staff members said that they were pushed out after raising
    concerns about child safety. This is all from The New York
    Times, by the way.
        ``Mr. Becerra told the Office of Refugee Resettlement
    director that if she could not increase the number of
    discharges of children, he'd find somebody who would.'' Next,
    ``20 percent of kids have to be released every week or you get
    dinged.'' It's a conveyor belt of children being forced through
    the system. And what's the priority of HHS? Just get them out
    as fast as we can. They go to factories, they go to slave
    labor.
        I've written to the FBI and asked the FBI, where are the
    80,000 plus children this administration's lost? They don't
    know. I've said it's your responsibility to go get them. It's a
    direct violation of child labor laws.
        They're not doing anything. Nobody's doing anything. It's
    outrageous. It's absolutely outrageous. And the fact that the
    administration won't come and sit there and answer questions to
    this Committee is absurd, and it is nothing more than
    cowardice. They don't want to answer questions. They don't want
    to be responsible. They don't want to take responsibility for
    this. So let the record reflect that this administration has
    let tens of thousands of children be sold into slavery and they
    are doing nothing about it.
        And I hope, Mr. Chairman--I'm glad you said that we would
    be holding additional hearings. We need to have additional
    hearings. There need to be administration witnesses there, and
    we need to figure out what in the world is going on and who's
    to be held accountable for this. Because I tell you what's not
    an acceptable answer--it's not acceptable to say, ``It's not my
    problem.'' We wish the kids the best. The kids are in danger.
    The kids are in slavery. The kids are being exploited, and it
    should not happen in the United States of America. Thank you,
    Mr. Chairman.
        Chair Durbin. Senator Blumenthal.
        Senator Blumenthal. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Thanks for
    holding this hearing, and I, too, am glad that we're going to
    have others, because I'm hoping that we'll have bipartisan
    support not only for enforcement of prohibitions against
    exploiting child labor, but also perhaps for comprehensive
    immigration reform as Senator Tillis said. We need to confront
    the broken system that currently is our immigration legal
    apparatus.
        Not only stronger border security, a faster, more reliable
    asylum process, visas for people who will have jobs that are
    vitally needed here, and a path to citizenship for our
    Dreamers, but also enforcement of labor law violations now on
    the books. And I want to ask you, Ms. Gerstein--thank you for
    your very extensive report in your testimony. What kind of
    grade would you give Federal law enforcement of our child labor
    prohibitions under OSHA?
        Ms. Gerstein. Well, the child labor prohibitions are
    located within the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Wage and
    Hour Division has responsibility for enforcing them. But,
    obviously, OSHA enforces workplace safety and health. I think,
    you know, I think, they're doing a very good job given the
    extremely limited resources that they have been provided. Our
    Federal labor agencies have been starved for funding for
    decades. They have not been supported in a way that is
    necessary to help them do their jobs. In the meantime, the
    economy has grown tremendously.
        We also have the rise, for example, of forced arbitration
    that prevents people from being able to bring cases in court
    and adds greater pressure to public agencies. The decline of
    union density, unions help make people more able to report
    violations because there's less fear of retaliation. And so,
    with all of this added pressure, the growth of the economy, the
    labor agencies are just really, really underfunded. Under the
    current acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and the incredibly--
    there are so many civil servants and people within the Labor
    Department who are really doing the best that they can and
    being strategic.
        The PSSI case was really, really well investigated and well
    done, but they're not given the tools and the resources they
    need to do their job effectively.
        Senator Blumenthal. To put it very simply, our enforcement
    mechanisms are being starved?
        Ms. Gerstein. Absolutely.
        Senator Blumenthal. And they were under the previous
    administration? In fact, the number of OSHA inspectors under
    President Trump fell to the lowest number in 45 years, correct?
        Ms. Gerstein. Yes. And the Wage and Hour Division, for
    example, had 400 more inspectors in the late 1970s than we have
    now. And one expert did some calculations and found that if you
    look at the number of investigators to workplaces, that Wage
    and Hour at its inception in the 1930s had 64 times as many
    investigators per workplace as it does now.
        Senator Blumenthal. And having been a prosecutor, I think
    we have a number of prosecutors on the Committee, deterrence
    depends on enforcement. Respect for the law depends on reliable
    and effective apprehension and prosecution. It also depends on
    penalties. Right now, the maximum penalty, I think, is $15,000
    for violating the child labor laws. Is that correct?
        Ms. Gerstein. Yes, it's a little over $15,000.
        Senator Blumenthal. And would you agree that increasing the
    penalties would also have a strong effect in deterring these
    kinds of violations and protecting children?
        Ms. Gerstein. I think it's critical that we increase the
    penalties. I think that alone will be inadequate unless funding
    is also increased, and unless we find a way to hold lead
    corporations responsible and accountable.
        Senator Blumenthal. So I invite my Republican colleagues
    who speak vociferously and vehemently on this topic to join the
    Child Labor Prevention Act, which would increase the maximum
    fines for violations and establish new criminal penalties, now
    we're talking, criminal penalties for child labor and hold
    employers accountable. There's also the Child Labor
    Exploitation Accountability Act, which is sponsored by our
    colleague, Senator Booker. I am a co-sponsor of these measures.
    But, unless we take these kinds of practical steps, resources,
    penalties, more effective enforcement, we can make all the
    speeches we want, we can use all the rhetoric we please, but it
    won't have an effect on employers who exploit children because
    for them it's all about the money. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Chair Durbin. Thank you, Senator Blumenthal. Since the
    Senator for Missouri is still here, there are two points I'd
    like to make about--that he mentioned in testimony. We did not
    invite representatives of HHS or DHS to this hearing today. We
    did not today. What we have done with these expert witnesses is
    have the first hearing. We are having a document production. I
    invited Senator Graham, Senator Cornyn to join Senator Padilla
    and myself for documentation to follow forward.
        On the 85,000 sponsors--or children that are unaccounted
    for, it is my understanding that after they have identified--
    ORR has identified a sponsor and the children are placed with
    that sponsor, the follow-up to find out how they are doing is a
    very poor one on my estimation. It's a series of telephone
    calls. Three telephone calls to the sponsor, and if they have
    not answered after the third call, they're listed as not being
    reached. We had testimony here from witnesses that these young
    people have no legal representation necessarily. And so it's up
    to the sponsor to link up with ORR, and it's not happening,
    which I think is a deficiency in the system. That's very
    obvious. I think Senator Ossoff is next.
        Senator Ossoff. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to
    associate myself with Senator Blumenthal's remarks.
        Chair Durbin. Excuse me, Senator Ossoff. I've made a
    grievous error.
        Senator Ossoff. Wow. We'll get through this together, Mr.
    Chairman.
        Chair Durbin. Senator----
        Senator Ossoff. It's all right, you know, it's all right.
        Chair Durbin. Senator Graham is next. I'm sorry.
        Senator Graham. I'll be brief. Senator Hawley, yes, we do
    need to have the administration here and hopefully we will. So
    let's see if we can find some common ground here. Of all the
    witnesses, how many of you agree with the following statement
    that the system is broken and needs to be fixed? Who thinks the
    system is working? Let's do it the other way. Raise your hand.
    Well, nobody raised their hand. So bottom line is I think it's
    broken, and I'd like to fix it. Now, how do you fix it? You
    punish people who exploit children as one fix. You change your
    policy so it's not so incentivized to have unaccompanied minors
    come. Ms. ``Gerstein,'' is that right?
        Ms. Gerstein. Yes, that's right.
        Senator Graham. Why do you think there's been a 300 plus
    percent increase in unaccompanied minors coming to the border
    since 2020?
        Ms. Gerstein. I'm not here to talk about that today. My
    expertise is in labor law enforcement.
        Senator Graham. Fair enough. Ms. Basham, can you give us an
    answer to that question?
        Ms. Basham. Well, I don't know for certain, but I will tell
    you this, that it's probably a combination of factors. And I do
    know when it comes to human trafficking in general we can talk
    about all sorts of things, but the root cause is actually the
    criminals themselves. And so, when we talk about push factors
    and pull factors, those have to be addressed because at the end
    of the day it's a crime of luring.
        So they are luring the mothers to oftentimes hand over
    their children and they don't really know what's ahead of them.
    So I know Chairman Durbin spoke of, you know, a terrible
    testimony that you'd heard in Chicago, and I do not believe
    that many of those who are coming know what lies ahead, that's
    first. And I also believe that the root is actually the
    criminals themselves. And so, as I think Senator Tillis said
    earlier, you know, this is really a crime where we are dealing
    with--they're making money off the sale of people.
        They could be making money off the sale of drugs, they
    could be making money off the sale of weapons, but they're
    making money off the sale of people. And so you have to deal
    with that one.
        Senator Graham. Is the Taliban involved in this, you
    mentioned?
        Ms. Basham. So the Taliban, I don't believe--I have no
    evidence of that directly with this. But I will tell you that
    sex trafficking itself is a huge money-making operation for
    every single terrorist network in the world. So, whether we're
    dealing with ISIS or we're dealing with Boko Haram in West
    Africa, whether we're dealing with what I would call
    adversarial nations, they all use versions of human trafficking
    to fund their operations. All of them.
        Senator Graham. So, Mr. Chairman, there are three
    countries, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, that make up
    the vast majority of unaccompanied minors. So I would recommend
    that we have the ambassadors of those countries come and talk
    to the Committee. We don't have to do it publicly, but
    privately and see if we can find some kind of agreement with
    the countries to do more on their end. I'm willing to help them
    do more. I'm certainly willing to punish them if they don't. So
    it seems to me that one of the reasons you have so many more
    coming is that the narrative is if you get an unaccompanied
    child to the United States, chances are they're not going to be
    sent back to these three countries.
        We need to change our policy and treat these three
    countries and really all countries as if they were Canada and
    Mexico. This noncontiguous policy is incentivizing this. And
    the money to be made--Ms. Basham, I will go back to you. The
    average unaccompanied minor doesn't just leave the house and
    walk to America. Somebody guides them through. Is that correct?
        Ms. Basham. Correct.
        Senator Graham. And who are these somebodies?
        Ms. Basham. Smugglers.
        Senator Graham. Smugglers?
        Ms. Basham. Coyotes.
        Senator Graham. So there is a criminal enterprise built
    around unaccompanied minors, and we know what countries are the
    biggest offenders. So why don't we start, Mr. Chairman, with
    trying to find some agreement with these countries to deal with
    this problem? And I'm willing to do incentives, carrot sticks,
    maybe that will help. It can't hurt. When it comes to stopping
    the problem, you're going to need immigration reform. And I'm
    hoping we can find some foothold on immigration reform. But the
    explosion in numbers, 300-and-something percent increase in 2
    years, there's a way to stop it if you want to and slow it back
    down and get the numbers down.
        Mr. Chairman, that's going to require a policy change. This
    administration has to come to grips with the fact that their
    policies are failing miserably in this area. Thank you.
        Chair Durbin. I'll sign up for that meeting with the
    ambassadors. That's a good idea. Now, let's try Senator Ossoff.
        Senator Ossoff. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for
    holding this hearing. Thank you to the panelists for your hard
    work and for lending your expertise to the Senate. I think for
    all Americans and particularly for parents, it's just heart-
    wrenching to hear, to know what so many children are going
    through who are in such vulnerable positions and let down at
    every stage along the way. So I just want to actually just open
    this up and ask each of you to make one recommendation to
    Congress that you think is practical and achievable right now
    to reduce the suffering of vulnerable children who are entering
    our country unaccompanied. Beginning with you, please, Ms.
    Gerstein.
        Ms. Gerstein. Adequately fund labor enforcement and create
    up chain liability. I know that's two, but I said it quickly.
        Senator Ossoff. Ms. Basham?
        Ms. Basham. I think increasing victim identification,
    specifically through education widespread throughout the school
    systems.
        Senator Ossoff. Ms. Davidson?
        Ms. Davidson. Need to adequately resource post-release
    services and legal services to make sure children are
    protected.
        Senator Ossoff. Ms. Ries?
        Ms. Ries. Secure the border to prevent the flow.
        Senator Ossoff. Ms. Bradley?
        Ms. Bradley. I will repeat what Ms. Davidson said as well,
    that being able to make sure that the children are protected
    after they have been released to their sponsors would be good.
        Senator Ossoff. Thank you, Ms. Bradley. And Ms. Davidson,
    I've co-sponsored Senator Hirono's bill, the Fair Day in Court
    for Kids Act, to ensure that unaccompanied minors do have
    representation as they move through the adjudication process.
    Can you explain to the Committee how a lack of legal
    representation impacts an unaccompanied child who is moving
    through adjudication or detention or the ORR system, please?
        Ms. Davidson. Absolutely. So unaccompanied children are
    some of the most vulnerable children. Most of these kids don't
    speak English. They don't have a strong understanding of how
    the immigration system works, yet they are in removal
    proceedings. And so it's imperative that these children have
    legal counsel, so that they have their day in court that
    they're able to share their story, and then a judge is going to
    determine whether or not they qualify for relief. And without
    that attorney, I mean, it's just ludicrous to think of small
    children having to represent themselves in immigration court.
    And so making sure we have resources for legal services for
    children post release is critical.
        Senator Ossoff. Ms. Davidson, I want to talk about the
    unaccompanied children who end up in foster care. And quite a
    number do wind up in foster care for some period of time.
    Senator Blackburn and I have launched an inquiry focused on the
    abuse and neglect of children in foster care in the United
    States. What sort of process, in your view, Ms. Davidson,
    should we undertake to ensure that unaccompanied minors who
    wind up in foster care systems don't suffer abuse or neglect or
    wind up lost to the system?
        Ms. Davidson. Yes, I think first we want to work on
    preventative measures. So making sure that children and family
    have the support that they need, so that we can care for them
    without having to put children into foster care unnecessarily.
    But children in foster care need to be protected. And we need
    to make sure that local Child Protective Services understand
    some of the additional vulnerabilities of unaccompanied
    children, such as the fact that they have no legal immigration
    status. And once we have really provided additional training
    for CPS to understand the needs of these children, I think we
    protect them because we want children to feel like they have
    that trusted adult. Somebody that they can tell if they're
    worried about abuse or neglect.
        Senator Ossoff. Thank you, Ms. Davidson. Thank you, Mr.
    Chairman.
        Chair Durbin. Senator Blackburn.
        Senator Blackburn. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I'm so
    pleased that Senator Ossoff mentioned the work that we're doing
    looking at foster care. I think that's going to be important to
    making certain that children are properly cared for. Mr.
    Chairman, I know that you and Senator Hawley discussed the fact
    that we have no Government representative here today. And HHS--
    --
        Chair Durbin. I mentioned they were not invited.
        Senator Blackburn. I think that they're--my understanding
    was that there was a choice not to invite someone. The point
    is, Secretary Becerra needs to come before us. I've got a
    letter I sent to him on April 27th. It was after a hearing at
    the Finance Committee where he could not give me an answer of
    what has happened to 85,000 children--85,000 unaccompanied
    children. HHS is responsible for them, and they can't find
    them. They don't know if they're dead or alive or trafficked or
    being worked because they can't find them. The Office of
    Refugee Resettlement has lost about a third of the children
    that they're supposed to be caring for.
        I think this is shameful. I have not received a response
    from the Secretary on what has happened to 85,000 children. I
    will ask to put my letter in the record because he has had this
    time. The point is, they don't know where these children are
    and they cannot find them, and they're not doing anything about
    it. I think that it is shameful, and we need to call him before
    this Committee and find out what has happened with these 85,000
    children that they cannot find. Ms. Ries, I want to come to
    you. You mentioned the southern border as something that could
    be done to stem this.
        I've been on the border several times. I see exactly what
    you're talking about. And it is why last week I introduced the
    End Child Trafficking Now Act. It would require a DNA test to
    establish familial relationship. This is something that had
    been put in place under the Trump administration, but like most
    Trump era border policies, the Biden administration chose to
    end that. It is a 45-minute test. It tells you if a child is
    related to a person or not. It would put a stop to much of this
    child recycling, which is disgusting.
        And I would just like for you to speak for a moment about
    why it is so critical for the CBP to establish that familial
    relationship right there at that border with that adult and
    that child standing in front of them.
        Ms. Ries. Because we have seen in the past, and we will
    soon see again, an increase in fake families. The cartels
    respond to border operations. And if CBP is going to stop
    taking DNA tests when they suspect a fake family, or if they
    have seen this child again with a different adult before, then
    they're going to send more fake families through, which means
    more suffering of kids, more trafficking, and more terrible
    results. So it was a bad decision, and they really need to
    reverse course and continue to test. When the agents who have
    developed expertise on this suspect fake families, they should
    be testing them.
        Senator Blackburn. And the numbers that I have seen are as
    many as 30 percent of the children being presented as a family
    member at the border are being trafficked. Does that match up
    with the numbers that you have?
        Ms. Ries. There have been several that have been
    discovered. So it is effective. And for any family, any child
    that can be saved from smugglers and adults who are lying and
    claiming that this child is theirs with obviously ill intent,
    then that is well worth it.
        Senator Blackburn. One of the things that I had noticed as
    I was preparing for this hearing, Secretary Becerra pressured
    the Office of Refugee Resettlement to speed up sponsor
    transfers for unaccompanied alien children. Going so far as to
    say, and I'm quoting him, ``If Henry Ford had seen this in his
    plants, he would have never become famous and rich. This is not
    how you do an assembly line.'' Now, Secretary Becerra's comment
    is repulsive, but I think it's also revealing. It confirms what
    we already know, that Secretary Becerra has no regard for what
    happens to these children that are released into the country.
        So I would just like to--well, and I'm over time. Ms. Ries,
    I'm going to ask you just to send in writing to me how you
    perceive Secretary Becerra's attitude. What does it do to harm
    the system and to make children less safe?
        Ms. Ries. I will do that. And just to follow up on your DNA
    question, one statistic: Between April and June of 2019, ICE
    was able to identify approximately 275 fraudulent families in
    just a matter of a couple of months.
        Senator Blackburn. Thank you.
        Senator Padilla [presiding]. Thank you. On behalf of the
    Chair and for clarification for the record, DHS does conduct
    DNA testing and continues to when there's a question about the
    validity of a parent-child relationship, and additional
    scrutiny is placed on individuals who are not related to the
    child to ensure that a child is not being trafficked. The Chair
    recognizes Senator Booker.
        Senator Blackburn. Mr. Chairman, I think--and let's say for
    the record, I think that policy was ended on May 31st.
        Senator Padilla. We're giving you the most current----
        Senator Blackburn. And they're relying on documents----
        Senator Padilla. The Chair has provided the most current
    information. We can continue the discussion after.
        Senator Blackburn. Thank you.
        Senator Padilla. Senator Booker.
        Senator Booker. Mr. Chairman, thank you. And I want to
    thank all the witnesses. I think there's been valuable
    perspective given on all components of this problem, from
    what's happening at the border all the way to U.S. labor laws.
    I have been sitting here and have some appreciation for
    colleagues of mine on both sides of the aisle who don't see
    this as a political blame game, but are trying to find
    constructive solutions to this problem. It's the only way we're
    going to deal with it. This is clearly a deplorable reality in
    any country, this violation of human rights and the
    exploitation of children. But to have it happen in the United
    States is so shameful and so outrageous.
        It should inspire the best of all of us to look to real
    constructive solutions. And it is so outrageous that this
    continues to happen year after year in the United States of
    America. There are children being exploited by companies and
    others who are absolutely deplorable. Let me get to my,
    hopefully, constructive questions. Earlier this year, I
    introduced the Child Labor Exploitation Accountability Act,
    which would hold corporations accountable for the exploitation
    of children and workers by simply saying that frequent
    violators, repeat violators of worker safety laws shouldn't be
    eligible for Federal contracts paid for with taxpayer dollars.
        I think that if when someone does this once, it should have
    real significant penalties. These are rational economic
    entities. If they know they were going to pay a severe price
    for it, then you would see it less happening. And so this is a
    legislation that, in my opinion, would increase penalties that
    would change behavior. Monetary penalties or debarment is
    important to address child labor laws. Ms. Gerstein, would you
    agree, just really simply?
        Ms. Gerstein. Yes, I agree. Government contracting should
    support good, high-quality jobs and at the very least, jobs
    that are legally compliant, not jobs that are--not companies
    that are violating child labor laws.
        Senator Booker. Right. And the acting Chairman, who is an
    extraordinary friend of mine--the United Farm Workers asked 100
    Senators to go out and work a day in the fields. He and I went
    out and actually did it. Some of the hardest work of my life.
    And just talking with the women I was working with and hearing
    their stories of sexual harassment, of wage theft, that alone
    shouldn't go on. But, when you talk about child labor, one of
    the things that seems to me needed is funding for the
    Department of Labor. Just having the resources to do their work
    as the acting Chairman sort of whispered to me earlier. Could
    you just comment on that for a moment?
        Ms. Gerstein. Yes. The Federal Department of Labor is
    grossly underfunded. The Wage and Hour Division has record low
    numbers of investigators. OSHA as well is at very low numbers.
    There's some statistics about how each workplace at current
    OSHA staffing levels would be investigated every like 150 years
    or so. The Solicitor of Labor's office doesn't have enough
    resources either. You know, I'm really encouraged to hear a lot
    of concern by the Members today about the exploitation of child
    workers, but if we really want to address this, we need to fund
    the agencies that are charged with enforcing our laws.
        Senator Booker. I mean, that's common sense to me that this
    is a functional way to enforce the law. I think there's
    bipartisan agreement on having resources for border
    enforcement. I think there's bipartisan agreement when it comes
    to our local police departments to keep us safe. But the people
    who are enforcing the law for labor, the people that should be
    out there doing a better job stopping this exploitation don't
    have the resources they need.
        The final sort of point that I have is that there are
    consequences for industries--and I want to focus in this last
    question on industry, the meatpacking industry, which is more
    concentrated today, more corporate concentration than it was
    when Upton Sinclair wrote ``The Jungle'' and exposed the
    horrific practices that were going on. You are now seeing in
    that industry horrific practices and labor violations,
    including child labor. And I'm wondering if you think your
    commentary on--I'm seeing some move toward unionization which
    there was far more. It used to be a middle-class job to be
    working in these things.
        Now, it is a job where you see immigrants and exploitation.
    Is there any hope that union organizing that's starting to go
    on can offer any antidote to what's happening?
        Ms. Gerstein. Well, there's tremendous support for unions
    among Americans. In surveys, 50 percent of workers say they
    would join a union if they could, 70 percent of people surveyed
    say they have a positive impression of unions, and yet only 6
    percent or so of private sector workers are actually unionized.
    And that's because our Federal labor law, the National Labor
    Relations Act, is really outdated and needs to be updated. At
    the same time, unions really do offer a better job and--better
    jobs and opportunities to people.
        They raise standards when they're present in industry, not
    just for members, but also throughout the entire industry. And
    one interesting--in relation to meatpacking, one interesting
    development after the Department of Labor's PSSI case is that
    JBS created JBS Sanitation and took some of these jobs instead
    of outsourcing to a subcontractor--to the contractor, PSSI took
    some of these jobs in-house and has an agreement with UFCW. And
    now, these are going to be good union jobs instead of jobs that
    are being done by exploited young immigrant children.
        Senator Booker. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Senator Padilla. Senator Cruz.
        Senator Cruz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Every day the
    disaster on our southern border continues to get worse. This
    disaster is a true humanitarian crisis, and it is the result of
    deliberate political decisions by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
    that have inflicted unspeakable horrors on millions of illegal
    immigrants: 6.6 million illegal immigrants have crossed
    illegally into this country since Joe Biden became President.
    And it has, in particular, done enormous damage to children.
    We're here today because the Biden administration has utterly
    failed.
        It has failed to secure the border, and it has encouraged
    parents to send their minor alien children on a dangerous trip
    to the United States unaccompanied. And it's failed to protect
    these children after they were let into the United States. The
    Democrats running this Committee have also failed. As we're
    holding a hearing to discuss the issues facing HHS's placement
    of unaccompanied minors, but we don't even have a single
    official from HHS here to answer our questions. Xavier Becerra
    should be sitting right in the middle of this panel, under
    oath, being forced to answer difficult questions about his
    absolute dereliction of duty when it comes to caring for these
    kids.
        But the Democrat leadership of this Committee doesn't want
    Secretary Becerra to face those hard questions because it would
    reveal his utter negligence and the children who are being
    harmed as a result. And so the absence of HHS is not an
    accident. It's not an omission. They just forgot. It's a
    deliberate decision: Let's protect the Biden administration
    from accountability. And concomitant with that decision is a
    decision to say the children being harmed are not important
    enough to the Democrat Senators on this Committee to overcome
    their partisan desire to play politics and protect the Biden
    administration from the consequences of their own failure.
        [Poster is displayed.]
        Senator Cruz. Take a look at this image. This image was
    captured from a video shot in El Paso on March 24th, 2023,
    where a smuggler abandons a 1-year-old child, a Guatemalan boy,
    on the riverbank. This 1-year-old child has now entered the
    unaccompanied minor alien child system currently administered
    by the Biden Health and Human Services.
        According to the Department of Health and Human Services,
    approximately 127,000 unaccompanied minors entered the United
    States during Fiscal Year 2022. So 1 year, 127,000 kids all
    alone; 2021, again, according to HHS, 107,686 unaccompanied
    minors entered the United States.
        Compare that to the last year of the Trump presidency,
    where that number was approximately 30,000. A 7-year low. Now,
    let me be clear, even one child in the custody of human
    traffickers is horrific and wrong. But 127,000? This
    administration--no wonder Secretary Becerra is too scared to
    sit there. He should be embarrassed of that record. Health and
    human services received $7.8 billion last year just for
    unaccompanied minor children.
        Troublingly, on February 24th, 2022, HHS admitted in a
    letter to Representative Andy Biggs that it could not contact
    approximately 20,000 minor children it placed in 2021. In 1
    year, 20,000, it just lost them. No wonder Secretary Becerra is
    not sitting at that table. On March 22nd, 2023, Senator James
    Lankford pressed Secretary Becerra on a portion of The New York
    Times expose indicating that HHS had failed to account for
    85,000 previously placed alien children.
        Becerra disputed the question saying it was unrealistic,
    but he failed to offer any concrete evidence or data or
    statistics. On April 25th of this year, I joined Senator Marco
    Rubio and my colleagues in a letter addressing HHS failures on
    this score, which actively highlighted the fact that the Biden
    administration loosened vetting, fired HHS staffers who filed
    complaints, and ignored HHS contracted organizations who voiced
    concerns. After The New York Times published a second expose,
    the administration announced the Department of Labor was taking
    action. What action? Action addressing child labor.
        Well, child labor is abhorrent. But how about the hundreds
    of thousands of children who are being smuggled in by human
    traffickers, who are being abused, who are being sexually
    abused, who are being physically abused, and whom the Biden
    administration has lost? This is a humanitarian crisis, and it
    is a man-made crisis produced by political decisions from this
    White House. And every American, whether Democrat or
    Republican, should be horrified at this state of affairs.
        Senator Padilla. Thank you to the witnesses, members of the
    public who are here today, Members of the Committee who have
    participated in today's hearing. I do want to reiterate what
    Chairman Durbin announced a couple of times earlier in the
    hearing. And number one, that the document requests are into
    the administration for the additional information and data
    that's been discussed. Also that there will be additional
    hearings on this topic in this Committee, including one with
    Government representatives. This is the first of, not the only,
    hearing on this topic.
        And also, on behalf of Senator Durbin, I want to thank the
    witnesses for participating here today. Now, one of the biggest
    concerns that I've had over the past several months and again
    today as I've listened to the testimony from our witnesses is
    about accountability. Time and time again I've seen a stunning
    lack of accountability and a willingness to pass the buck on
    something as outrageous as child labor exploitation. And let me
    be more precise. We're talking about billion-dollar companies,
    household names in America, who are more than happy to report
    and brag about their profits each and every year.
        Corporations who spend heavily on hiring consultants to
    analyze every step of their supply chain, their manufacturing
    process, make recommendations on how to eke out ever more
    efficiencies, productivity, and profit. Yet when it comes to
    responsibility of who's working for them, who's making these
    profits even possible, they claim ignorance. It's offensive
    that CEOs of these companies want us to believe that they don't
    know what's happening in their facilities or what's happening
    with suppliers or the contractors that they choose to employ.
        It's a shock to the conscience. And there's no longer room
    for ambiguity for who's at fault. As you heard from Ms.
    Gerstein today, employers across the Nation indeed have the
    means to prevent this exploitation from happening. But, all too
    often, their choice to look away has become more profitable and
    those profits have become their priority. We must enforce the
    laws to hold these employers accountable and ensure that our
    Federal agencies are working and working together to better
    protect these children, all children. And it's clear that we
    must work together to enact some of the reforms mentioned here
    today to do better for their sake. With that, I thank you all
    once again. This hearing is adjourned.
        [Whereupon, at 12:19 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
        [Additional material submitted for the record follows.]

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                  Additional Material Submitted for the Record

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