Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, joined by a group of Republican lawmakers, has introduced the Preventing the Recycling of Immigrants is Necessary for Trafficking Suspension (PRINTS) Act, aimed at addressing the growing crisis of child trafficking and abuse at the southern border.
This legislation seeks to empower U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) by granting the authority to fingerprint non-citizens under the age of 14, a measure intended to curb the practice of “child recycling” by human traffickers.
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Under current Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regulations, CBP agents are prohibited from fingerprinting minors under 14 years old, a restriction that Blackburn and her colleagues argue hinders the identification of trafficking victims. The PRINTS Act is designed to give CBP the tools needed to detect and prevent repeated exploitation of children by human smuggling networks.
“Under President Biden’s open border policies, we are witnessing a devastating humanitarian crisis, and children are the primary victims,” said Senator Blackburn. “Abusing and using a child again and again is one of the most heinous acts imaginable, and yet it happens every day along the southern border.”
Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) emphasized the urgency of the legislation, stating, “The Biden administration made the southern border a gateway for child trafficking. Vulnerable children have been sold, recycled, and exploited under Democrats’ watch. With the new Trump administration in sight, we will end this abuse.”
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The PRINTS Act includes several measures aimed at combating child trafficking and exploitation, including:
- Fingerprinting Authority: Empowering CBP to fingerprint non-citizen minors under the age of 14 to identify victims of trafficking and prevent child recycling.
- Transparency: Mandating DHS to publicly report monthly apprehensions involving traffickers falsely claiming to be related to children and submit an annual report to Congress on minors fingerprinted under this Act.
- Accountability: Removing the U.S. Attorney General’s authority to waive fingerprinting requirements for illegal border crossers.
- Criminalization: Explicitly criminalizing child recycling practices.
The PRINTS Act has garnered co-sponsorship from Republican Senators including Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and others, who cite the Biden administration’s border policies as contributing to the crisis.
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“The murderous drug cartels have exploited the open-borders policies of the last four years to reap billions off of human smuggling,” said Senator Ernst. “By fingerprinting every child at the border, we protect both our nation and the children.”
Senator Grassley underscored the gravity of the situation: “Over the last four years, child exploitation at our nation’s southern border has exploded. This humanitarian crisis is a direct result of the Biden administration’s open border policies.”
Statistics highlight the urgent need for intervention:
- One in every three human trafficking victims is a child.
- In 2019, ICE identified 600 children who had been “recycled,” with some being used as many as eight times by traffickers.
- Recent reports reveal that the Department of Health and Human Services has lost track of over 85,000 migrant children placed with sponsors, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation.
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The PRINTS Act aims to address the gaps in the current system and protect vulnerable children from falling prey to traffickers. “This legislation is part of our efforts to secure the border and crack down on human trafficking,” said Senator John Hoeven (R-N.D.).
With bipartisan attention on border security, the PRINTS Act represents a concerted effort by lawmakers to tackle one of the most pressing humanitarian issues facing the nation. Advocates argue that passing this legislation is critical to restoring accountability and protecting the nation’s most vulnerable from exploitation.
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