The Biden administration’s program for unaccompanied children crowding the Southern Border is “taxpayer-funded child slavery, sanctioned by the government,” according to a whistleblower.
Deborah White was one of two whistleblowers who told tales of horror and abuse during a roundtable discussion about human trafficking at the border convened by Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.
After dubbing the program for unaccompanied children child slavery, White said, “I have interviewed these children and I have stories that will haunt me for the rest of my life,” according to KEYE-TV.
“This is the most horrific injustice against children that I have witnessed in my entire federal career,” whistleblower Tara Rodas said.
Both whistleblowers said efforts to protect children were met with resistance by officials in the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
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White said she believed children were being trafficked when she did a background check on the alleged sponsors of the children who had crossed into the U.S. When she told a supervisor about this, her access to the background check database was terminated, according to Just the News.
She said the trip to the border was a trial of abuse for children
WARNING: The following quote contains language that some readers may find disturbing.
“Typically, they owed about $2,500,” she said. “They … knew they were coming here to work and pay off that debt. So labor trafficking was absolutely out of control.
Should the Biden administration be congressionally investigated for enabling child trafficking?
“You know, there were also cases where, you know, children were sexually assaulted en route.”
White had volunteered to help with the border crush.
“What I discovered was horrifying,” White said, according to the New York Post.
In her prepared remarks, White said “children were being trafficked with billions of taxpayer dollars by a contractor failing to vet sponsors and process children safely, with government officials complicit in it.”
“Children were sent to addresses that were abandoned houses or nonexistent in some cases. In Michigan, a child was sent to an open field, even after we reported making an 911 call after hearing someone screaming for help, yet the child was still sent. When I raised concerns about contractor failures and asked to see the contract I was told, ‘You’re not gonna get the contract and don’t ask for it again,’” she said.
“Contacting the Guatemalan consulate in regards to fake documents resulted in a reprimand by an HHS ORR official stating ‘That’s not your job, and you are never to contact the consulate again.’ When I checked on a child’s welfare at another facility I was told, ‘Do not do that again. Once these children leave here…they’re gone and they are no longer your responsibility,’” she said.
“The HHS ORR program is the biggest failure in government history that I have ever witnessed. Despite raising case after case of trafficking, HHS ORR leadership and the contractor allowed children to be trafficked on their watch and the taxpayers continue to fund it! “ she said.
In her remarks, Rodas cited one clear case of trafficking.
“I think about a 16-year-old girl from Guatemala. I’ll call her Carmen. Her sponsor claimed to be her older brother. But after Carmen was released from the Unaccompanied Children (UC) Program to her sponsor in North Carolina, she appeared in a photo on his social media. He was touching her inappropriately. It was clear her sponsor was not her brother,” she said.
“Later, Carmen appeared on her sponsor’s social media again – this time she was alone and all-dolled-up: her hair was styled; her makeup was done; and her shirt was unbuttoned. ORR’s Federal Field Specialist said Carmen looked drugged and that she was for sale. It was discovered that Carmen’s sponsor had other social media accounts containing child pornography,” she said.
Another child was released to a sponsor in Ohio with MS-13 convictions.
“When I reported the MS-13 case and provided evidence that other MS-13 and 18th Street gang members were sponsoring children, ORR retaliated against me,” she said, noting she was escorted away from her job after reporting her concerns.
