Under Biden-Harris, requests for financial support for human trafficking are increasing, including for children

Under the Biden-Harris administration, requests for taxpayer-funded financial benefits for trafficked aliens, including children, skyrocketed, according to federal data.

Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, foreign nationals in the U.S. who have been victims of human trafficking are eligible for certain benefits, services and protections. To obtain this, those who qualify can receive a Certification of Eligibility (COE). letters from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

According to HHS factsThe number of COE letters issued increased under the Trump administration and continued to rise under the Biden-Harris administration. Notably, fiscal year 2017 marked the first time that COE letters for children were larger than those for adults, and that has not changed since.

The data covers the financial years 2001-2023. The data for the 2024 financial year have not been published. HHS’s fiscal year runs from October 1 through September 30. Three full fiscal years under the Trump and Biden-Harris administrations provide full-year comparisons.

Under the Trump administration, COE letters were issued in:

Financial year 2017 to 506 children/448 adults Financial year 2018 to 465 children/411 adults Financial year 2019 to 892 children/310 adults

Under the Biden-Harris administration, COE letters were issued in:

Financial year 2021 to 1,143 children/527 adults Financial year 2022 to 2,226 children/731 adults Financial year 2023 to 2,148 children/582 adults

The number of letters for trafficked children is roughly three times higher under the Biden-Harris administration than under the Trump administration.

Like one record number of at least 14 million illegal border crossings were reported under the Biden-Harris administration, a record number of unaccompanied children (UACs) believed to have been smuggled into the US were also reported

This is reported by HHS received referrals for 370,573 UACs in fiscal years 2021-2023 and 159,398 in fiscal years 2017-2019.

The controversy escalated when HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, responsible for caring for UACs, became found repeatedly to have been negligent in the Office of the Inspector General’s investigation. Congressional investigations unfounded accusations of abuse, and HHS ORR loses track of more than 100,000 UACs. A grand jury from Florida found that UACs were sent to poorly or unvetted sponsors, to live with gang members, people with criminal records and to non-residential addresses and were allegedly abused.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-IA, filed criminal referrals after whistleblowers came forward other actions to reform UAC supervision. Recently a committee of the US House of Representatives summoned HHS for UAC information. Republicans in the US Senate argue the Biden-Harris administration “created the largest child trafficking ring in American history.”

Border Patrol agents have expressed concern about drugged children they continue to rescue; retired Border Patrol chiefs have done so explained how teenagers are forced to claim they are UACs to cross the border and then become entangled in sex trafficking and forced prostitution. The Ministry of Labor has also reported increased incidents of child labor, The Center Square reported.

Texas Department of Public Safety officials did just that saved There are more than 900 UACs in Texas alone, the majority of whom claim to be teenagers, a spokesperson told The Center Square.

According to HHS data, the majority of UACs are between the ages of 15 and 17 and the majority are boys. Once processed by Border Patrol and HHS ORR, the majority was released to HHS contracted facilities in Texas, The Center Square reported.

When Vice President Kamala Harris was a U.S. senator, she supported cutting funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and for years she supported ending the agency responsible for arresting the most violent offenders. She also opposed ICE arresting illegal aliens who tried to sponsor UACs — one of the biggest red flags of human trafficking, federal and state research shows.

The Biden-Harris administration also implemented policies that facilitated lax sponsor screening and criminal background checks, among other processes identified in OIG reports and congressional and state conferences. to research. The government then attempted to codify this policy through a rule change opposite by a Grassley-led coalition. The advocacy group Alliance for a Safe Texas also opposed it, highlighting examples of abuse.

“President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris appear to have overseen some of the worst abuse of children in our lifetimes,” Alliance founder Sheena Rodriguez told The Center Square. “The policies they implemented and then attempted to codify are dangerous because they have weakened sponsor vetting requirements, released children to non-family members, including gang members, and exponentially increased the likelihood that the children will be trafficked and exploited for child labor.”

The HHS data is also “grossly underreported when you look at the number of unaccompanied minors arriving at the U.S. border and the fact that HHS has no idea where the majority of these children are,” she said. Rodriguez does called for reforms at the state level, especially in Texas, pointing to updated HHS data showing that more than 63,000 UACs were sent to “poorly vetted sponsors in Texas” in fiscal year 2024. Since the 2019 budget year, there have been nearly 95,000, she said, citing HHS data.