Obama administration delivered illegal immigrant children to predators,
lawmakers say
“Worse yet, the administration acknowledged that it can’t account for each of the 90,000 children it processed and released since the surge peaked in 2014.”
The Washington Times – Thursday, January 28, 2016
The Obama administration sent illegal immigrant children into “modern-day slavery” by turning them over to sponsors who forced them into child labor or subjected them to sexual abuse, members of Congress said Thursday as they demanded that top child protection officials explain how it could have happened.
“I do hope all you President Trump haters can read better than you remember history, because here is just one sick part of Obama’s Legacy, and also I hope everyone pays attention to the lies HHS/CPS tells to Our Law Makers.”
Robert StrongBow
CPS Still Pimping Children To Sex Traffickers
Where Are The 90,000+ Latino Children CPS
Social workers don’t verify all sponsors’ identities, don’t make site visits to see the conditions they’re sending the children to, don’t insist on follow-up visits to see how the kids are doing and don’t consider serious criminal records — including child sex charges — automatic disqualification for hosting a child, congressional investigators said.
As a result, the government delivered children into the hands of what amounted to sexual predators or abusers or placed them into abject poverty, investigators detailed in a report about malfeasance at the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement.
One girl was sent to live with a man who claimed he was her cousin and who had paid to smuggle her into the U.S. It turned out he wasn’t related at all, but instead had paid to bring the girl — with her mother’s encouragement — on the understanding that she would become his wife. She became uncomfortable with their sexual relationship, came forward to report the real story and was taken into child protective services.
In another case, a boy was turned over to a man who posed as a relative, but was in fact connected to smugglers who forced the child to work almost 12 hours a day to pay off the $6,500 his mother gave to smuggle him into the U.S., congressional investigators said. That situation is so prevalent it has earned a name: debt labor.
Worse yet, the administration acknowledged that it can’t account for each of the 90,000 children it processed and released since the surge peaked in 2014.
“It sounds like everything that could go wrong did go wrong,” said Sen. Rob Portman, chairman of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which conducted a six-month investigation into the government’s handling of the tens of thousands of children who have poured across the border in the past few years.
Mark Greenberg, acting assistant secretary at the Administration for Children and Families, the HHS agency that oversees the handling of the children, stumbled for answers during a two-hour grilling, but said his officers were only following their policies.
He insisted that if there was a fault, it lay with Congress, who needed to rewrite the laws if it wanted his social workers to do more to keep children safe.
“What we’re talking about today is our understanding under the law,” he said.
The Obama administration admits it was overwhelmed when unaccompanied children — those sent on the treacherous journey north without a parent or guardian in tow — streamed across the border at the rate of more than 10,000 a month during the peak in the summer of 2014.
Local communities waged “not in my backyard” campaigns to keep the children from being housed at facilities near them, so the administration looked to quickly process and release the kids. Part of that meant relaxing the checks that were performed.
The Washington Times reported in July 2014, at the height of the surge, that advocates predicted children would be sent to unsafe homes, with one group estimating that as many as 10 percent of the children were being sent to live in unacceptable or dangerous conditions.
But 18 months on, the Obama administration has yet to revoke a single sponsor’s custody agreement, with the administration saying once it has placed a child in the hands of a sponsor — either a relative, family friend or someone else — they no longer have control.
If a sponsor refuses to answer questions and shuts the door in the face of a social worker, there’s nothing the administration can do, Mr. Greenberg told the Senate panel.
“Our view that we don’t have continuing custody after we release a child is a long-standing view,” he said.
“If this is an area where Congress wants the law to be different, Congress should change the law.”
HHS did not disqualify families even if the sponsor was an illegal immigrant in danger of being deported himself.
Home visits are made in just 4 percent of the tens of thousands of cases, and it wasn’t until earlier this week — years into the unaccompanied minor crisis — that HHS adopted a new policy preventing children from being shipped to homes where someone has been convicted of a sex crime.
“We’re talking about felony convictions for child abuse. Hello?” said a frustrated Sen. Claire McCaskill, Missouri Democrat.
About 90 percent of the children were sent to live with parents or close relatives, but that left thousands who were placed with other sponsors — often people claiming to be family friends.
The subcommittee investigation found some sponsors tried to claim multiple children, and some addresses were repeatedly listed on sponsorship forms, suggesting that government officials should have spotted something wrong.
In the worst public case so far, investigators said human traffickers used the government’s placement program to sneak kids from Guatemala to the U.S., where HHS processed them at the border, then delivered them to supposed family friends. But the friends turned out to be sponsors-for-hire who, as soon as they collected the kids from HHS, turned them over to the traffickers who were running an egg farm in Marion County, Ohio, and needed the children for cheap labor.
The children were forced to work 12-hour days, six or seven days a week, and lived together in a dilapidated trailer. The traffickers withheld paychecks and threatened their families back home in Guatemala to intimidate the children, Mr. Portman said.
“It is intolerable that human trafficking — modern-day slavery — could occur in our own backyard. But what makes the Marion cases even more alarming is that a U.S. government agency was responsible for delivering some of the victims into the hands of their abusers,” he said.
NOT IN MY WORLD!!!! 
Thank you Robert, for more information than any of my representatives have given me about these children. I DID write letters asking, only to be told the children were handed over to CPS, leaving tears in my eyes. I responded that a presidential election was coming. I am not an Obama or Trump hater. I love our children. Congress and Senate have no terms, but the poles will be open this November and I intend to be there, whether my vote will count or not. Your research educates my research and for that I am deeply grateful. We can all help at least one child at a time in this country, often more.
Sincerely;
Crystal
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Crystal, you’re welcome! We appreciate your input and questions.
Actually Representatives are elected for two years at a time, and Senators are elected for six years at a time.
I really hate saying this, but as far as helping Children, about all we can do is report any and all abuse and/or neglect that we see or hear immediately.
Other than that, we need to reach out to young Parents and be there for them, while enlightening them as to what they can expect as their Child is born, and what they should and shouldn’t be doing at the time to ensure their Child has what they need and is taught the basic values needed to prepare them to be a good family member, good friend, good neighbor, good productive member of the community, and so on….
With all of this said, my first advice to young couples would have to be the need to relocate to a small town with the values this Country was built upon. I would do everything possible to convince all of the need to home school or private school. Not one of my Grand Children attend public school where liberal values are practiced.
Sincerely,
Robert
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Robert, I agree with everything you said about being watchful of abuse, and helpful to young parents. Parenting is a stressful job that doesn’t come with instructions.
As for schooling, my grandchildren go to public school. But we live in a small town where each class and/or event is started with the Pledge of Allegiance. This isn’t a state wide practice, as many other events here, but it is small and over seen by many parents and grandparents. If we lived in a larger area, they would be either home schooled or in private school. Fortunately, I know the staff here and the curriculum.
Thank you for everything you said. You are correct that legally, all we can do is report any abuse/neglect that we see. This is best and we should any and every time we encounter it.
Sincerely;
Crystal
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Thank You Crystal, I sure appreciate your comments and interaction, in an endeavor as Ours, the more interaction and discussion, the more chances of thinking of some situation, or possibly something we had never thought of before that time, which if done constructively and with the attitude of really considering and respecting the other persons viewpoints and opinion, it can better prepare us as Mentors, Role Models, or just someone young people and couples will find more comfortable talking with, since many Parents or Elders might be more of the attitude that they have raised their kids and their way is the only way of doing things.
Only one problem with that, and that is the fact that few people I know, that are in my age range, communicated really well with their parents, which is a part of the reason that there is so many people that were damaged directly by Child Maltreatment, or collateral damage there of.
Sincerely,
Robert
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Reblogged this on Madison Elizabeth Baylis.
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Robert;
That last thing you said is one of the saddest and most unfortunate facts of life. Too often maltreatment is handed down through generations of loving, well meaning people. It is an invisible cycle within the family, hidden by so much love in all other areas that it feels it can’t be wrong. People think their family just expresses love differently. Yes, I just opened Pandora’s Box because this happens in the best of families and may strike a nerve in some very fine, upstanding people. Of course all families do differ. I come from a family who hugs. Since moving away from most relatives, I miss being greeted with warm hugs, but understand that is unacceptable behavior in this area, especially with the opposite gender. Not just families, all individuals differ. But many good families, which we all accept as good, pass on good and bad traditions. Perhaps we should all revisit these, and if they aren’t acceptable in public put them to rest. Some are much worse than hugging, which children need I think, and damaging to children.
I had neighbors whom I loved dearly. They have both passed on several years back. They had a traditional that freaked me out at first! This family ALL greated each other, then me also once we were close, with a kiss on the lips. Not a lingering kiss, just a kiss. So eventually I got used to it as their way of expressing love just like my family hugs. It seemed a bit invasive and unsanitary to me, but strictly cordial. Looking back, I miss them very much and don’t regret a kiss. They were a very kind and loving family.
These examples are Rated G but many habits are family secrets. Our habits are very controllable so we all should re-examine and adjust them, for the sake of the children and future generations. Thank you for this discussion and your input Robert.
Sincerely;
Crystal
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Crystal, I sure appreciate your input, and most times, it is thought provoking input, which lets us explore more in-depth.
Crystal, you are indeed a very large Blessing to Our Circle, as so many don’t come here to the sites to read and comment.
Have a great weekend Crystal!
Robert
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Robert, thank you very much. Reading and commenting helps keep a Circle close, but more importantly, opens discussions, thoughts and ideas to help in our world. Communication helps all situations, such as reporting all Malabuse witnessed.
Have a nice weekend.☀️
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Crystal, you are welcome! Your input is highly valued, and something I look forward to.
If you haven’t checked out my latest on the website, I suggest you do, as we speak, I have Part #2 ready to go.
Then I think it is time to work over Our Home page.
Have you gotten your new T.E.N.S. yet? If not let me or Aida know, OK?
I got what I was waiting for….
Sincerely,
Robert
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