Washington D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.) will participate in a roundtable discussion hosted by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), titled “The Exploitation Crisis: How the U.S. Government is Failing to Protect Migrant Children from Trafficking and Abuse.” The event aims to address the shortcomings of the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) management of the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) program, which has led to thousands of vulnerable children being lost or potentially handed over to criminals.
The roundtable will take place on Tuesday, July 9, at 2:30 p.m. ET / 1:30 p.m. CT in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 608, and will also be available via livestream. Witnesses will include HHS UAC program whistleblowers, Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary Shevaun Harris, and criminology expert Dr. Jarrod Sadulski.
This roundtable follows Senator Britt’s recent collaboration with Senator Grassley and a bipartisan group of 44 Senate colleagues in introducing a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution of disapproval. This resolution seeks to overturn a Biden Administration rule that is believed to endanger the safety and wellbeing of unaccompanied alien children crossing into the United States.
In addition, Senator Britt is a cosponsor of two significant pieces of legislation: Senator Mike Lee’s (R-Utah) Stopping Border Surges Act, which aims to address loopholes in the immigration system and reform provisions that incentivize illegal migration of unaccompanied children to the border, and Senator Ted Cruz’s (R-Tex.) Secure the Border Act, the Senate’s companion bill to the House of Representatives’ H.R. 2, designed to end the exploitation of unaccompanied children.
The roundtable intends to shed light on the systemic issues within the UAC program and explore potential legislative solutions to protect vulnerable migrant children from trafficking and abuse.
