After years when no one cared about almost half a million children tossed about the country under uncertain supervision, the Trump administration is taking action.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has launched a partnership with state and local law enforcement to determine the status of 450,000 unaccompanied children who crossed the border during the Biden administration, according to a Department of Homeland Security news release.
The UAC Safety Verification Initiative will conduct welfare checks “to protect vulnerable children from sexual abuse and exploitation through collaboration with… law enforcement partners,” the release said.
“The Biden administration’s open border policies empowered human and sex traffickers,” the release added.
“The Trump administration is taking a sledgehammer to human trafficking rings and ensuring these children who were smuggled across the border are not being abused,” the Department of Homeland Security continued.
Assistant Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said that “Secretary Noem is leading efforts to rescue and stop the exploitation of the 450,000 unaccompanied children the Biden administration lost or placed with unvetted sponsors.”
“Many of the children who came across the border unaccompanied were allowed to be placed with sponsors who were smugglers and sex traffickers,” she said.
“The Trump administration has located more than 24,400 of these children in-person, in the United States, through visits and door knocks,” McLaughlin continued.
“We’ve jumpstarted our efforts to rescue children who were victims of sex and labor trafficking by working with our state and local law enforcement partners to locate these children. President Trump and Secretary Noem are laser-focused on protecting children and will continue to work with federal, state, and local law enforcement to reunite children with their families,” she said.
The new effort to protect children began Monday in Florida.
The release noted that in 12 states — Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas — sponsors of unaccompanied children have been arrested.
Sponsors have been charged with various types of assault, rape, domestic violence, attempted murder, drug trafficking, and human trafficking.
In August, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa noted that thousands of unaccompanied children were placed in unvetted homes under the Biden administration.
“My oversight continues to expose disturbing evidence that the Biden-Harris administration turned a blind eye to tens of thousands of kids who needed proper supervision and care,” he remarked.
“It’s appalling to prioritize speed and optics over the safety and wellbeing of children,” Grassley said.
“I appreciate the Trump administration’s efforts to undo the damage caused by the last administration’s failed border policies, and I’ll continue my oversight of the issue to ensure abuse like this never happens again,” he added.
Grassley’s office revealed that 11,488 migrant children were placed with sponsors who did not have a background check and who were not fingerprinted. Further, 79,143 children were placed in homes where no home study was ever performed.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
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