Goodlatte Statement at Markup of the Protection of Children Act

Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) today delivered the following remarks during the House Judiciary Committee’s markup of the Protection of Children Act (H.R. 495). Chairman Goodlatte: The past four years have witnessed the phenomenon of unaccompanied alien minors arriving at our borders in unprecedented numbers.  Central American minors, largely teenagers, are making the perilous journey through Mexico and then walking miles across a hostile border environment, assisted or abandoned by smugglers, as the case may be, with the intent of entering the United States illegally. In fiscal year 2011, the number of unaccompanied minors apprehended at the border was a little over 6,000. Between 2012 and 2016, the total number caught at the border surged to almost a quarter million. The Obama Administration claimed that generalized violence and economic depression in Central America was the reason for this influx.  However, a 2014 intelligence report illustrated that the previous administration’s policies of lax immigration enforcement played the key role in enticing parents, already in the U.S. illegally, to hire coyotes to smuggle their children into the country.  Word apparently spread throughout Central America that, even if apprehended, minors would not only not be removed, they would be turned over to the parents who placed them at risk in the first place by attempting to smuggle them into the U.S. The Trump Administration is making strong efforts to resuscitate immigration enforcement.  After only a month in office, the Administration reported a 40 percent drop in border apprehensions.  While enforcement is clearly having a big impact, in this fiscal year so far over 31,000 unaccompanied minors have already been apprehended at our southern border.  The statutory loopholes exploited by aliens and the statutorily-required disparate treatment of apprehended minors based simply on their countries of nationality cannot be fixed even by a well-meaning Administration, but must be corrected by Congress.  Only in this manner can we conclusively end these systemic problems. Judge John Carter’s bill does the job.  It sends the urgently needed message to parents in or from Central America who are considering smuggling their children into the U.S. that once apprehended, these minors will not be released into our communities.  Rather, they will be swiftly and safely returned to their home countries. The Carter bill modifies the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008. That legislation created two distinct sets of rules regarding unaccompanied minors, one for minors apprehended from contiguous countries, such as Mexico, and one for minors from noncontiguous countries. Minors from contiguous countries can be immediately returned if they consent, have not been trafficked, and don’t have a credible fear of persecution.  However, minors from other countries must be placed in lengthy removal proceedings before the immigration courts during which they are usually released into the United States, often to the very parents who attempted to smuggle them into the United States. Mr. Carter’s bill eliminates the conflicting rules and subjects all minors to expeditious return if they have not been trafficked and do not have a credible fear of persecution. The bill also provides authority for the Secretary of State to negotiate agreements with foreign countries regarding unaccompanied minors, including protections for minors who are returned to their country of nationality. As for those unaccompanied minors who will be awaiting immigration court proceedings, Judge Carter’s bill provides for greater transparency and safety.  It requires the Department of Health and Human Services to finally take steps to provide DHS with biographical information regarding the sponsors or family members to whom they are released.  With no requirement currently in place, minors have been lost in the system or, worse, delivered into the hands of criminals or child abusers.  They are easily targeted for recruitment by street gangs, and we have witnessed many so-called unaccompanied minors joining vicious transnational gangs such as MS-13. The bill also mandates that DHS follow up with the sponsors with whom the minors are placed to verify their immigration status and issue notices for them to appear in immigration court where appropriate. And it ensures that unaccompanied minors get the same number of bites at the apple for asylum as other aliens. I want to thank Judge Carter for championing such a critical issue and introducing a bill that will curb illegal immigration, disincentivize dangerous smuggling practices and ultimately protect children.  I urge my colleagues to support this bill.  We must prevent another mass influx of minors along our southern border and the suffering that inevitably comes along with it.