Washington D.C. – U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.), serving as the Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, has recently joined forces with Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and 16 other Senate Republicans to introduce the Preventing the Recycling of Immigrants is Necessary for Trafficking Suspension (PRINTS) Act.
The primary focus of the PRINTS Act is to combat human trafficking and child recycling by granting U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) the authority to fingerprint non-citizens under the age of 14. Additionally, the proposed legislation mandates that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) publicly report monthly apprehensions involving child traffickers falsely claiming accompanying children as relatives. An annual report to Congress would be required to identify the number of minors fingerprinted under this Act.
The PRINTS Act also seeks to eliminate the Attorney General’s authority to waive fingerprinting requirements for individuals illegally crossing the southern border and criminalizes child recycling.
Senator Britt expressed concerns about the current administration’s border policies, asserting that they overlook the human costs of their agenda. She highlighted the tragic reality of vulnerable children being trafficked and recycled across the porous southern border, emphasizing the urgent need to address the humanitarian and national security crisis.
Senator Blackburn echoed these sentiments, emphasizing the devastating humanitarian crisis under President Biden’s open border policies, particularly affecting children as primary victims. She stated that empowering border patrol agents to fingerprint non-citizens under the age of 14 could aid in identifying victims of child recycling and preventing further abuse.
A bipartisan group of Senators, including Tom Cotton, Bill Cassidy, Bill Hagerty, Roger Wicker, Steve Daines, Joni Ernst, Ted Cruz, John Hoeven, Mike Rounds, Thom Tillis, Mike Lee, Cindy Hyde-Smith, John Cornyn, Marco Rubio, J.D. Vance, and Kevin Cramer, has cosponsored the legislation.
Background information provided with the announcement of the PRINTS Act highlighted alarming statistics, including that one in every three human trafficking victims is a child. In 2019, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) identified 600 children subjected to recycling, with one child being brought across the border as many as eight times. Recent reports indicated that the Department of Health and Human Services lost track of over 85,000 children released to sponsors, raising concerns about potential exploitation, abuse, and forced labor.
Despite these concerning figures, current DHS regulations and federal laws restrict Border Patrol agents from fingerprinting children under the age of 14. The full text of the bill is available for review.
Earlier this year, during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, Senator Britt questioned Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra about the administration’s policies regarding the treatment of unaccompanied migrant children. She expressed grave concerns about field guidance from HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, emphasizing the potential risks to children’s lives and well-being due to certain policy implementations.
