On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) questioned Robin Dunn Marcos, Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, about the ongoing child migrant crisis at the southern border and the 85,000 children that the Biden Administration has lost track of.
“Do you really think that you are helping these children by releasing them to labor traffickers and yes, sex traffickers?” asked Senator Hawley. “85,000 children whom you have no contact with and your answer is—we gave them a presentation before we turned them over to these people who are exploiting them on a scale not seen in this country for 100 years.”
When Senator Hawley pressed Director Dunn Marcos to say exactly how many migrant children the department had released into the United States and was also currently in contact with, the Director had no response.
“Let me just ask you this,” said Senator Hawley. “How many kids right now—of the 430,000 approximately unaccompanied children who have crossed the border under this administration, it’s an astounding number—how many are you in regular contact with, right now?”
Director Dunn Marcos could not answer Senator Hawley’s question.
Watch the full exchange here or below.
Earlier this year, Senator Hawley introduced the Corporate Responsibility for Child Labor Elimination Act, legislation compelling large corporations to eradicate unlawful child labor from their operations in the United States. Senator Hawley also sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding a full-scale effort be made to locate the nearly 85,000 missing migrant children.
