[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 99 (Wednesday, June 12, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S4037]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Unaccompanied Minor Rule

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I am here to inform my colleagues what 
is wrong with our immigration enforcement involving children.
  In April, the Biden administration finalized a rule governing its 
Unaccompanied Minors Program. They did this over the objections of this 
Senator and 38 others when we informed the administration in a letter. 
And we didn't object lightly.
  For nearly a decade, my oversight has shown that the Office of 
Refugee Resettlement--that is ORR for short--has failed to protect 
unaccompanied minors. Biden's new rule cements ORR's dangerous 
policies.
  Here is just one example of ORR's many failures. This is taken 
straight from a Justice Department court filing. A sexual predator 
smuggled a 10-year-old girl. I will call her Mary. That is not her real 
name. Mary was from Guatemala, smuggled to the United States on false 
promises of an education.
  When she reached the border, ORR officials promised Mary they would 
find a safe sponsor for her. Then they simply trusted everything to 
Mary's predator and what that predator said.
  Mary's predator lied about being her father. He gave ORR phony 
documents and phony forms approving Mary's release to his sister, who 
he claimed was Mary's aunt.
  Under Biden's rule, ORR doesn't have to verify a sponsor's proof of 
identity or even guardianship. It doesn't even fully background-check 
the sponsor. The ORR rule takes a sponsor's representations at near 
face value and then puts employees on a 10- or 14-day clock to get kids 
into the hands of the sponsors as fast as possible.
  Then, without even batting an eye, the ORR escorted Mary to her fake 
aunt in Chicago. There, this 10-year-old girl was stabbed with a 
kitchen knife, scalded with cooking oil, and repeatedly sexually 
assaulted by four men.
  Mary, you know, thought she was coming to America to have a better 
life and pursue the American dream. Instead, she was enduring a 
nightmare. I imagine Mary prayed every night for help. I reckon she 
spent every day asking God how this happened to her.
  It happened because the United States turned a blind eye, and by 
finalizing this rule, the administration of President Biden is refusing 
to remove the blindfold.
  ORR knows it has a problem. The Justice Department told ORR what 
happened to Mary.
  Last December, I led 38 other Senators in demanding ORR change its 
policies, but our warning fell on deaf ears. Biden's ORR just finalized 
a rule with policies that are even worse than those that placed Mary 
with her abusers. Under these policies, in 2021, ORR sent another 
little girl to a sexual predator in the State of Kentucky who falsely 
claimed to be her uncle. ORR accepted fake paperwork and unverified 
claims. It moves kids to sponsors as if they were nothing more than 
products on an assembly line. We ought to protect kids from predators.
  There is a process that Congress can object to these rules. It is 
called the Congressional Review Act. It is something that can be done 
in the U.S Senate with just a majority vote. You don't have to have 60 
votes to stop debate because it is limited to 10 hours of debate, and 
then you vote whatever the majority wants to do.
  We have this whole thing of child abuse in the immigration system 
because we are not adequately vetting the people who bring these kids 
in or where they are assigned. It is very clear that child abuse of 
this type is not a Democrat or a Republican issue. Under the 
Congressional Review Act process, I am glad to have the support of 
Senator Manchin and 43 other Senators on my resolution to overturn the 
Biden administration's awful ORR rule. I hope to see more of my 
colleagues support this effort. I hope to get it to a vote and ask for 
their support.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. RICKETTS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Cortez Masto). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.