The Biden administration knew it was creating a child migrant labor crisis and did nothing
Tiana Lowe
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Just last month, the New York Times published its blockbuster report into massive numbers of migrant children being coerced into child labor. Now, the Grey Lady reports that multiple people blew the whistle to the White House starting in 2021, but the Biden administration did nothing.
According to the New York Times, the Labor Department warned the Oval Office about the surge in child labor violations, and lower and mid-level staffers at the Department of Health and Human Services complained that the administration’s policy of catch-and-release imperiled minors, whose sponsors went virtually unvetted by the HHS. Officials in the know included Susan Rice, Tyler Moran, and presumably President Joe Biden himself.
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We can surmise that Biden knew not just because his consiglieri did, but primarily because the trafficking of children into illegal labor is the logical conclusion of Biden’s abysmal border and economic policies.
The immigration facet is obvious. By ripping apart the Safe Third Country and “Remain in Mexico” diplomatic deals brokered by his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, Biden gave the green light to any immigrant from any country to claim asylum at the border, whether that was legally justified or not. As the volume of immigrants flooded HHS facilities, catch-and-release was expanded such that little care could be taken to ensure that children went to proper guardians instead of human traffickers. Compared to the 24% of fewer than 60,000 children whom Trump’s HHS could not contact after releasing them to a sponsor, Biden’s HHS could not contact one-third of the more than 120,000 children who came to the U.S. illegally.
Immigration created the supply of illegal labor, and Biden’s pursuit of “full employment” at all costs created the demand. Biden pumped an extra $1.9 trillion of liquidity into the economy, stoking inflation, while the artificial economic boom allowed baby boomers to cash out at the peak of the housing bubble and prematurely exit the labor force. While the resulting labor crunch helped some teenagers line their resumes and wallets with after-school jobs, minors who illegally resided in the U.S. were pushed into jobs and shifts meant for actual adults to take.
The progressive penchant for sacrificing price stability at the mantle of “full employment” does not mean that workers’ wage increases beat out inflation. Rather, it means that illegal and unethical labor practices fill the void left by workers and paid for with government-fueled asset bubbles.