[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 146 (Thursday, September 12, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5461-S5462]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     End Child Trafficking Now Act

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, this is not the first time I have 
come to the floor to discuss a situation that is on our Nation's 
southern border and the need that we as a country have for a stronger, 
more efficient immigration policy. I have made more than one trip to 
South Texas this year, and each time I have returned, I have found 
myself more motivated to cut through the noise, and to get something 
done.
  What should be a practical policy discussion has, unfortunately, 
turned political, and very real problems have compounded into an 
unprecedented crisis.
  Within these Halls, we have debates over asylum caps and visa 
requirements. They are indeed important issues, but recent reports on 
the explosion of human rights violations perpetrated by cartels, 
coyotes, and international gangs have added some much needed context to 
these debates.
  By now, we have all heard how dangerous the journey to our southern 
border can be for those who are being brought forward by cartels, 
coyotes, and international gangs. Traffickers have really built a big 
business--a very big and profitable business--on moving drugs and 
desperate human cargo across the border. Sometimes these individuals 
make it, and sometimes the guides leave their charges to die--to die 
alone in the desert. Rumors of abuse, assault, and gang rape have 
manifested and been proven true. Border Patrol agents at most ports of 
entry administer pregnancy tests to girls as young as 12 years of age.
  While we waste time arguing over talking points, monsters--absolute 
monsters--are dragging children into the crosshairs of an international 
crisis. While we debate the best way to amend our loose asylum laws, 
traffickers are finding ways to exploit those laws, using children to 
force their way back and forth across the border under the guise of 
parental legitimacy.
  ``Child recycling'' is a crude term but an accurate term, and we 
define it as when a minor is used more than once by alien adults who 
are neither relatives nor legal guardians but pose as family members 
for the purposes of crossing the border. How despicable and how very 
selfish of them. Child-recycling isn't a myth, unfortunately. It is not 
an urban legend. It is a definite, well-defined, clear and present 
danger.
  DHS has uncovered more than 5,500 fraudulent asylum claims since May 
of 2018. I want you to think about that number--5,500 fraudulent asylum 
claims since May of 2018. Customs and Border Patrol tells us that 
unaccompanied minors are particularly vulnerable to trafficking and 
that drug runners and sex predators are rolling the dice on these 
fraudulent asylum claims to move their products--which, bear in mind, 
are people and drugs--to move them more efficiently.
  Earlier this year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement introduced a 
pilot program they believed would help determine how serious the child 
recycling problem is. They began administering DNA tests on all adults 
accompanied by minors who claimed a familial relationship but lacked 
the paperwork to prove this relationship. As a safeguard, all swabs 
were destroyed, and no genetic profiles were collected or stored. The 
purpose was solely to

[[Page S5462]]

prove a DNA match. And thank goodness somebody was watching. The 
results have been horrifying. One in five claims of kinship is 
fraudulent. That means one in five children who were brought to the 
border and then funneled into the pilot program was likely being 
exploited.
  I ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to say that finally we 
have had enough and to voice their support for the End Child 
Trafficking Now Act. This act requires the Department of Health and 
Human Services, in conjunction with the Department of Homeland 
Security, to administer DNA tests for all adults accompanied by minors 
at a port of entry who claim a familial relationship without sufficient 
legal documentation to prove the connection.
  Refusal of the test will be met with immediate deportation. 
Fabrication of family ties or guardianship will carry a maximum 10-year 
penalty, and the child will be processed as an unaccompanied minor 
under current law. Proven family members and guardians, however, will 
be allowed to move forward with the immigration process.
  The tests themselves are simple--a quick swab of the cheek and a 
quick wait. I say ``quick'' because we will be using a new form of 
genetic testing that can analyze a DNA sample in about 90 minutes.
  I will tell you that I am aware that the various factions in this 
Chamber have vastly different approaches to immigration reform. We 
should be having a serious discussion about the fundamental flaws in 
our policies and our plans to fix them. I welcome these discussions, 
and I look forward to the changes, but I know and my colleagues know 
that no one bill or package will repair what is broken in our current 
immigration system. There is no viable quick fix.
  We owe it to this country and we owe it to the children who are 
brought here under duress and under false premises to do whatever we 
can to prevent what experience and pilot testing have proved we can 
indeed prevent. Let's make certain that children coming to the southern 
border are with family and that they are protected.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Young). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.