In response to a video released in late November by Project Veritas, three US Senators penned a letter to Sen. Gary Peters, chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs demanding that the committee hold a hearing into whistleblower allegations of child trafficking.
“We write in response to recently reported claims by federal employee whistleblower that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is knowingly transferring unaccompanied migrant children in the custody of criminals, including sex traffickers,” the letter from Senators Ron Johnson, Rick Scott, and Josh Hawley began.
“This cannot be swept under the rug,” the letter continued. “Congress must immediately take action to stop the atrocities this whistleblower claims are being committed by the federal government itself.”
“The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs must call a hearing to further investigate these whistleblower claims.”
A video, released by Project Veritas on November 29, contains an interview with Tara lee Rodas, an employee at the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, and was “formerly detailed with HHS at the Emergency Intake Site in Pomona, California,” the letter states.
The senators called Rodas’ claims made during the video “disturbing,” including saying that “we are paying to put children in the hands of criminals,” and “we know that children have been trafficked through the [Unacompanied Children] program.”
“The most reprehensible claim by Ms. Rodas occurred when she raised concerns to command center executives about placing another unaccompanied child in a questionable home. According to Ms. Rodas, someone told her, ‘I think you need to understand we only get sued if we keep kids in care too long. We don’t get sued by traffickers. Are you clear? We don’t get sued by traffickers.’”
“It angers us that this Administration is more concerned about lawsuits than about protecting a child from sex slavery,” the senators wrote. “We have long known that the Biden Administration’s open border policies are fueling human trafficking and child sex trafficking, as migrants repay debts to the cartels who transport them to illegally cross the border.”
The senators noted that in numerous committee hearings and briefings, they have repeatedly pressed the HHS and Department of Homeland Security for information regarding human trafficking along the border, “however, this Administration is either unable or unwilling to answer our question.”
“With Ms. Rodas’s courageous whistleblowing, the committee can no longer continue to allow this Administration to dodge scrutiny over its inhumane border crisis. Therefore, we demand that you hold a hearing to investigate Ms. Rodas’s claims, calling as witnesses HHS Secretary Becerra, DHS Secretary Mayorkas, and CIGIE Chair Allison Lerner,” the letter concluded.