There were fireworks aplenty at Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing when Josh Hawley (R-MO) challenged Robin Dunn Marcos, director of HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement, over her testimony on the subject of child trafficking amongst migrant children.
The topic of the hearing was: “Ensuring the Safety and Well-Being of Unaccompanied Children.” Marcos, who hit the headlines earlier this year when she admitted to the House Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs that her department had lost contact with over 85,000 unaccompanied minors, failed to impress Hawley with her statement and seeming lack of accountability.
The heated exchange began when Hawley questioned Marcos over her department’s practice of providing a “Know Your Rights” presentation to every migrant child. The senator wanted to know if that presentation took place “before or after” HHS “released them to labor traffickers.” Marcos stammered out an answer, but Hawley quickly cut in to question if she had read a series of New York Times articles that documented the dire fates of many of those 85,000 children who have been released by HHS into uncertain situations.
The New York Times, in a rare act of journalism, has revealed what awaits many of these youngsters when they are released from HHS custody. Hawley, in referring to the articles, alleges the minor children are reduced to scrubbing dishes, operating heavy machinery, delivering meals, harvesting coffee, working construction, working as housekeepers, and working overnight shifts at plants. He concluded, “They are not paid, they are not going to school, they are not cared for, they are not given meals … almost all illegally.”
Marcos acknowledged she had read the articles, but failed to take any accountability when she launched into what looked like an ask for more money. Hawley was having none of that, cutting in again to make this withering reply:
“Respectfully, I would like you to do your job and not release children to human traffickers. Respectfully, that is what I would like. I would like you not to facilitate the largest child trafficking ring in the history of America.”
It’s worth a watch:
Joe Biden, start doing your job and stop releasing children to human traffickers pic.twitter.com/bw56ubwtYv
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) October 25, 2023
Hawley has been one of the Republican Party’s most vocal critics of the Biden administration over its failed border policies. Of late, he has been hammering DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his agency’s lax enforcement rules at the southern border, particularly in the wake of the October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel. Hawley wrote to Mayorkas, “I write with alarm regarding the uptick in potential terrorist-linked illegal aliens encountered at the southern border. This development follows the barbaric attack perpetrated by Hamas terrorists on innocent American and Israeli civilians.”
The list of issues grows by the day due to Biden’s failure to secure the border, with unknown numbers of illegals flooding communities across the country with little-to-no follow-up from the government. Many of these illegals are young children who are brought across the border by mules, who then abandon them to whatever awaits them. As Josh Hawley points out, what awaits them is often a cruel existence.
