Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and co-chairman of the Caucus to End Human Trafficking, sent a letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) on July 13, 2015 asking for answers regarding a child labor trafficking incident in Ohio.
A press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office states that several minors were placed into the care of the four individuals being charged for forced labor trafficking by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) under the Department of Health and Human Services. The same defendants were bringing Guatemalans into the United States promising an education, but instead blackmailing the workers’ paychecks for the safety of their families.
The responsibility of the ORR includes the “safe and timely release (of minors) from ORR Care.” The guidelines read:
“ORR evaluates potential sponsors’ ability to provide for the child’s physical and mental well-being, as the law requires ORR to protect children from smugglers, traffickers, or others who might seek to victimize or otherwise engage the child in criminal, harmful or exploitative activity.”
With the ORR obviously not meeting these standards, Senator Portman is calling upon Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell to provide documentation that reveals how at least five minors were released to dangerous individuals.
“A single case of trafficking is harmful enough. But if ORR does not have adequate safeguards in place, there is cause for concern that this has happened in other cases and could happen again.”
The information Senator Portman is requesting from the DHHS includes a copy of the Family Reunification Applications submitted by the defendants, post-release services information, and background check materials.
Portman gives Secretary Burwell a deadline of July 28, 2015 to make the seven requests in his letter public for analysis and investigation to ensure the incident never happens again.
It is crucially important that all children in the United States are given safe environments to learn and grow in. That is why leaders like Rob Portman are stepping up to ensure that safeguards are in place and that law enforcement has the tools to properly thwart all potential types of human trafficking.