U.S. Senator Ron Johnson is voicing concerns about the safety of migrant children in the U.S. A congressional report has found that migrant children were left vulnerable to human trafficking, due to ineffective screening of host homes by the Department of Health and Human Services.
“We’ve gotten more efficient at apprehending, processing and dispersing (migrant children),” Johnson said. “And unfortunately we’re processing and we’re dispersing children into these horrific circumstances.”
The Wisconsin Republican said an Obama administration memorandum in 2012 encouraged the young boarder crossers. “Which regardless of what the memorandum actually says, sent a very strong signal to children and families in Central America, that if you get into America, you’ll be able to stay.”
Johnson said that while the number of unaccompanied minors entering the U.S. decreased in 2105, it is once again on the rise. “We’re already up to 16,000 in just the first quarter of 2016. Why isn’t that big news?”
The congressional report appears to confirm an Associated Press investigation, which found more than two dozen children were sent to homes where they were sexually assaulted, starved or forced to work for little or no pay.