Global Courant
FIRST ON FOX — Texas Republican Representative Lance Gooden is introducing legislation requiring a DNA test to determine the family relationship between an illegal alien and a minor to combat human trafficking at the border.
The “End Child Trafficking Now Act” would require the Department of Homeland Security or the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a DNA test if an illegal migrant cannot provide documentation or a witness to prove the family relationship with a minor to prove.
Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, walks down the house stairs. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“Every child deserves protection, especially the most vulnerable,” Gooden said. “The exploitation of foreign minors by human traffickers is one of the most sickening outcomes of the border crisis. This legislation will ensure that young children are no longer seen as ‘skip the line’ tickets by cartel members.”
The bill’s proposal comes as 81,474 unaccompanied or unaccompanied minors were found at the southern border this fiscal year. ICE officials previously used DNA testing at the southern border under the Trump administration before those contracts expired when Biden took office.
Trafficking victims rose 193% during the 2020-2021 fiscal year, prompting lawmakers and border officials to develop new policies to counter the rise.
Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn (RT.N.) will reintroduce the bill to the Senate after first proposing the bill in August 2019. recycling”, which is when a child is used multiple times by an adult to gain access.
Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee (right) led an all-female delegation of GOP senators to the southern border in early January 2023. (Matt Leach/Fox News Digital)
“Migrants who try to enter our country illegally often bring children with them under the guise of being that child’s parent or guardian, which is precisely why it is critical for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to obtain DNA tests,” said Blackburn. .
HUMAN TRAFFICKING ON THE SOUTHERN BORDER ‘LEADS TO SLAVERY’: SEN. MARSHALL
“It’s one of the few ways we can prevent human trafficking,” former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker told Fox News. country.”
“If you know you’re at risk of being DNA tested, you’re more likely to abuse the system,” said acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker.
The Flores settlement requires DHS and HHS to share responsibility for migrant children and provide minors with access to emergency services, shelter and food. Officials should also aim to detain children for less than a month. Subsequently, migrant children are given to sponsors, released or transferred to adult facilities.
Migrant women and children in a shared room at Rescue Mission of El Paso. (Fox News Digital / Jon Michael Raasch)
“The Flores decision made it very difficult, because when a minor is found, the clock starts, and it just makes it very difficult to make a rational policy,” Whitaker said.
EX-DHS CHIEF WOLF ACCUSES BIDEN ADMIN OF ‘CRISIS BY DESIGN’ AT THE BORDER, CALLS FOR NEW LEADERSHIP
The HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) has been convicted of failing to track minors after they were released into the country, resulting in many children becoming victims of human trafficking or dangerous jobs.
April Fools New York Times Investigation revealed that migrant children “worked overnight in slaughterhouses, replaced roofs, operated machinery in factories — all in violation of child labor laws” despite “warnings that the Biden administration ignored or missed.”
The White House has responded to the threat of human trafficking by authorizing $14 million last December to staff Homeland Security’s (DHS) Center for Countering Human Trafficking (CCHT) with at least 45 employees.
Lacey Christ is a producer with “Fox News @ Night.”
