House Judiciary to hold hearing examining ‘exploitation’ of migrant children at border
Cami Mondeaux
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The House Judiciary Committee will convene a hearing on the surge of immigration at the southern border, this time focusing on how open-border policies specifically affect unaccompanied children who make their way into the United States.
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement will start the hearing on Wednesday as GOP lawmakers seek to determine how the Biden administration’s border policies “enable the exploitation” of children who come to the U.S. illegally.
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The panel will hear from three witnesses, including Tara Lee Rodas, a federal inspector general employee at Health and Human Services; Sheena Rodriguez, the founder and president of Alliance for a Safe Texas; and Jessica Vaughan, the director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies.
The hearing is the committee’s third part of its “Biden’s Border Crisis” series, following two previous meetings that were held in February. The first hearing took place on Feb. 1 and focused on how surging numbers of immigrants have exacerbated the country’s fentanyl crisis. The committee held a follow-up hearing on Feb. 23, which focused specifically on immigration in Yuma County, Arizona.
The third hearing is scheduled for Wednesday at 3 p.m.
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Republicans have long pledged to use their House majority to focus on the influx of illegal immigrants coming into the U.S. from the southern border, which has significantly increased under the Biden administration. Border officials encountered more than 2 million immigrants at the southern border during fiscal 2022, an increase from 1.7 million encounters the year before.
Immigration officials reported encountering more than 152,000 unaccompanied minors at or near the southern border in fiscal 2022, marking an all-time high. About 72% of those children were 15 years or older, although officials have reported encountering infants and toddlers.