VIDEO: Ranking Member Cassidy Delivers Floor Speech Condemning Biden-Harris Admin for Exploitation of Migrant Children Under Its Watch
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, delivered a floor speech condemning the Biden-Harris administration’s actions that have led to the continued exploitation of unaccompanied migrant children in its care.
Cassidy’s remarks came ahead of Senate Democrats blocking Republican legislation prohibiting the use of federal funds for any Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) grantee facing suspension and debarment procedures for allowing illegal sexual abuse or harassment of children in its care. Recently, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Southwest Key Programs, alleging that its employees committed sexual abuse against unaccompanied children in its shelters for nearly a decade. Cassidy previously called on the HELP Committee chair to hold a hearing with Southwest Key and ORR officials to answer how these shocking allegations of sexual abuse went undetected for so long.
“The problems with ORR and the exploitation of children have been well-documented for years. Yet there has been no substantive effort by Biden or Harris to fix their open border policies or reform ORR to protect unaccompanied children from harm,” said Dr. Cassidy. “Unfortunately, it is clear Democrats do not treat the border or the exploitation of children as a serious problem that needs to be fixed, but a purely messaging issue they only need to prioritize in an election year.”
“I hope my Democrat colleagues join Republicans tonight to pass this commonsense bill to hold ORR contractors accountable for the exploitation of children under their watch. We must protect these vulnerable children from further harm,” continued Dr. Cassidy.
In his speech, Cassidy discussed his ongoing investigation into the systemic failures at ORR, which is responsible for caring for unaccompanied migrant children once they cross the border and ensuring they are released to safe and thoroughly vetted sponsors. Cassidy learned of cases where Biden-Harris officials released these children to dangerous sponsors, including sexual predators and those with close ties to MS-13 gang members. Many of these children are also forced into dangerous working conditions and exploited for illegal labor.
Last month, Cassidy penned a Fox News op-ed detailing how Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ open border policies have led to ORR’s failures to protect unaccompanied children from exploitation.
Click here to watch Cassidy’s full remarks.
See below for the remarks as prepared for delivery.
M. President,
When President Biden and Vice President Harris took office, we had the lowest rates of illegal immigration in nearly 50 years. But, instead of maintaining strong border policies inherited from President Trump, Biden and Harris rushed to overturn them. They ended “remain in Mexico,” reimposed so called “catch and release,” and exempted unaccompanied children from Title 42.
The result was predictable. The Biden-Harris open border policies encouraged the worst rates of illegal immigration ever, including over 500,000 unaccompanied migrant children. In fact, the month after unaccompanied children were exempted from Title 42, we saw the highest monthly total of unaccompanied children crossing the southern border in history.
The influx of migrant children under the Biden-Harris administration overwhelmed the Office of Refugee Resettlement, or ORR. This is the agency responsible for unaccompanied children apprehended at the border and responsible for releasing them to thoroughly vetted sponsors.
ORR responded to this influx by sending children to hastily constructed emergency care facilities with untrained, unvetted staff and poor living conditions. The agency also removed key sponsor vetting requirements after senior Biden-Harris officials directed ORR to expedite the process of releasing migrant children to outside sponsors. This was clearly done to shield the White House from the political embarrassment of facilities overrun with unaccompanied children crossing the border they opened.
In fact, as early as July 2021, ORR staff warned superiors that ORR leadership had “dismantled” sponsor vetting policies, and that these changes “weakened ORR’s ability to protect children from risks such as trafficking and exploitation.” Despite this, ORR inexplicably left these policies in place for years while hundreds of thousands of children were released to poorly vetted sponsors.
As ranking member of the Senate HELP Committee, I am investigating the Biden-Harris administration’s failure to protect migrant children from exploitation and abuse. I’ve learned that some of these children are forced into dangerous working conditions and exploited for illegal labor. At one such facility, currently under investigation for child labor violations, a 16-year-old boy died when pulled into a meat-processing machine.
I’ve also found that ORR’s weakening of sponsor vetting requirements directly led to children being put in harm’s way. In one instance, ORR neglected to verify whether the sponsor’s claimed address was even a real home, sending a child to an address that was nothing more than an open field. In another case, a 16-year-old child was released to a sponsor who posted sexually explicit photos of the child on social media, including a photo where the sponsor was touching the child inappropriately.
In addition to my investigation, I joined Senators Grassley and Johnson earlier this summer in hosting a Senate roundtable to examine ORR’s failures and identify steps Congress could take to reform the agency. We learned that, due to failures at ORR, some unaccompanied children have been forced into drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and other criminal activity to pay off the cartels who brought them here. All of this without any follow-up or meaningful oversight from the Biden-Harris administration.
By the way, this sometimes is used as rhetoric, but we have the documentation.
This exploitation also seemingly occurs while migrant children are still in ORR custody before sponsor placement. In July, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Southwest Key Programs, the largest ORR contractor housing unaccompanied children, alleging that for nearly a decade, its employees have committed sexual abuse and harassment against unaccompanied children as young as five years old. DOJ alleges that Southwest Key not only failed to take sufficient action to prevent sexual abuse, but also actively discouraged children from officially reporting these incidents.
In August, I called on the HELP Committee chair to hold a hearing with Southwest Key and ORR officials to answer how these shocking allegations of sexual abuse went undetected for so long. So far, HELP Committee Democrats have not committed to a hearing or an effort to investigate.
Southwest Key still receives hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to operate shelters for migrant kids. If ORR will not take action in the wake of these allegations, Congress must. That is why I worked with Senator Grassley on legislation that would prohibit the use of federal funds for Southwest Key or any other ORR grantee facing suspension and debarment procedures for allowing illegal sexual abuse or harassment of children in its care. I appreciate Senator Grassley’s leadership on this legislation.
The problems with ORR and the exploitation of children have been well-documented for years. Yet there has been no substantive effort by Biden or Harris to fix their open border policies or reform ORR to protect unaccompanied children from harm.
The exploitation of children should not be partisan. This is not a Republican or Democrat issue. When vulnerable children are harmed or die at the expense of bad policies, everyone should be outraged. Everyone should be demanding change.
Unfortunately, it is clear Democrats do not treat the border or the exploitation of children as a serious problem that needs to be fixed, but a purely messaging issue they only need to prioritize in an election year.
I hope my Democrat colleagues join Republicans tonight to pass this commonsense bill to hold ORR contractors accountable for the exploitation of children under their watch. We must protect these vulnerable children from further harm.
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