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Mexican Invasion Title: Great moments in government: HHS handed children to human traffickers Examining how the federal agency processes minors who arrive at the border without a guardian, lawmakers said they found that it had not followed basic practices of child welfare agencies, like making home visits. The Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations opened its inquiry after law enforcement officials uncovered a human trafficking ring in Marion, Ohio, last year. At least six children were lured to the United States from Guatemala with the promise of a better life, then were made to work on egg farms. The children, as young as 14, had been in federal custody before being entrusted to the traffickers. And guess what? HHS doesn’t track its placements, and so it has no idea how many other children might have fallen into the hands of traffickers. The Senate found evidence of suspected cases numbering in the dozens: The report also said that it was unclear how many of the approximately 90,000 children the agency had placed in the past two years fell prey to traffickers, including sex traffickers, because it does not keep track of such cases. The Associated Press first reported on the failure at HHS and the boon for human traffickers they provided. Garance Burke noted that rule changes to reduce oversight within HHS’ program led to the grotesque outcome: Since the rule changes, the AP has identified more than two dozen children who were placed with sponsors who subjected them to sexual abuse, labor trafficking, or severe abuse and neglect. “This is clearly the tip of the iceberg,” said Jacqueline Bhabha, research director at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. “We would never release domestic children to private settings with as little scrutiny.” Advocates say it is hard to gauge the total number of children exposed to dangerous conditions among the more than 89,000 placed with sponsors since October 2013 because many of the migrants designated for follow-up were nowhere to be found when social workers tried to reach them. HHS officials claimed that they didn’t have the funds to perform these tasks, but the Senate found that the agency didn’t use the funds they had already been allocated: HHS claimed that it lacked the funds and authorities that a more rigorous screening process would have required. However, the investigation also found that HHS did not spend all of the money allocated to it for handling the crisis. In other words, it’s ineptitude resulting from a lack of accountability. It’s this kind of incompetence that has plagued immigration control, visa management, and border security for decades, and why voters demand an overhaul of those functions before discussing what to do with those who have already crossed the border. Even a mass deportation at this point wouldn’t solve the problem (assuming one is remotely realistic), because the same people would flood back across the border again. It’s gotten so bad that HHS stopped checking on children it placed with total strangers, and to this day apparently has no information on how to track them. This is more than unamusing. It’s disgusting, revolting, and shameful. And once again, it shows why no one trusts the federal government to handle responsibilities explicitly assigned to them, let alone the ones over which they arrogate jurisdiction at the expense of the states and the people. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 3.
#1. To: TooConservative, Willie Green, All (#0)
Of course, following the Prime Directive of the Emperor HHS was just being politically correct. They certainly were avoiding any accusations of having profiled anyone.
I wouldn't be surprised if some HHS employees were in on the slave trade themselves.
Only the ones that aren't involved with drug trafficking.
#4. To: SOSO (#3)
There's only so much time in a day. Federal employees have to divide their time carefully between drug trafficking and human trafficking in order to maintain their promotion schedule and bonuses.
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