WASHINGTON – Congressman Lou Barletta, PA-11, today successfully amended legislation that reauthorizes the Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) to require a report on unaccompanied children at the U.S.-Mexico border to include information on the impact on CBP. Barletta’s amendment, which was approved and incorporated into H.R. 3846, expands a required CBP report to include information on Border Patrol resources spent to care for unaccompanied alien children in their custody, including any operational or policy challenges impacting the Border Patrol. Barletta made the change during a hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security, of which he is a member.
“As a father and grandfather, I would not wish upon anyone the anguish that must come from sending an unaccompanied alien minor to another country. Sending minors on a path to be dumped on the border exposes them to human traffickers, who must notice this new crop of potential candidates for the sex trade or slavery. Likewise, these minors are prime recruitment candidates for violent gangs,” Barletta said. “U.S. Border Patrol is having a difficult time just keeping their heads above water in this flood of unaccompanied alien children, and this amendment would seek detailed information on the level of effort and amount of resources expended by CBP to manage this crisis.”
In recent days, thousands of unaccompanied children have been amassing at the border between the United States and Mexico, largely from Central American countries, including Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Overflowing holding centers have been opened to accommodate the influx, and Border Patrol agents have been pressed into duties outside their normal responsibilities. Some of the refugees report that news broadcasts in their home countries have told them they could enter America with impunity, even though they lack appropriate legal documentation for entering the country.
“In large part, the Administration’s immigration policies are enticing alarming levels of unaccompanied alien children to enter the United States illegally, and this influx has completely overwhelmed Federal resources, turning U.S. Border Patrol offices into day care centers,” Barletta said. “Our agents should not be babysitters. They should be doing the job they are trained to do-- protect our borders. Asking them to do otherwise is an operational flaw.”
Barletta has been warning that the conditions surrounding illegal immigration have been encouraging people from other countries to illegally cross the border. He believes a spike in illegal immigration was foreseeable.
“Three things have been contributing to the crisis we now face with those unaccompanied children at the border,” Barletta said. “First, we haven’t secured and don’t enforce our borders. Second, we have a president who openly refuses to enforce the law and enacts the DREAM Act without Congressional approval. And third, Congress has dangled the possibility of amnesty for illegal immigrants for so long that there might as well be a big welcome mat at the border
