Democratic senators advocated for an increase in the Labor Department’s budget to prevent abuse of migrant children during a hearing on unaccompanied minors at the border Wednesday.
Judiciary Committee members Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) suggested the department’s limited resources contributed to the uptick in child labor law violations.
“To put it very simply, our enforcement mechanisms are being starved,” Blumenthal said in reference to the general decrease in funding for federal labor agencies.
The department’s wage and hour division includes approximately 800 investigators, who are tasked to monitor a wide variety of labor laws, including child labor. Terri Gerstein, director of Harvard Law Center for Labor and a Just Economy, said it’s a remarkably low number of investigators, especially considering the number dropped by 400 since the late 70’s while the economy grew in that time.
“When you talk about child labor, one of the things that seems to me needed is funding for the Department of Labor,” Booker reiterated towards the end of the hearing.
The request for a bigger budget may be rejected despite vocal support from Democrats on the committee, since they agreed with Republicans to cap federal spending in the most recent debt ceiling deal.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) rebuffs the idea of increasing federal spending, citing the Department of Health and Human Service’s failure to contact around 20,000 minors with a budget of 7.8 billion dollars for unaccompanied minor safety.
Other Republican members suggested that altering the Biden administration’s immigration policy could solve the child migrant crisis.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) claimed that the President’s policies incentivize parents to send their children across the border alone, knowing that they will likely be allowed to stay in the U.S..
“The Biden administration, through its policies, fomented a crisis on the border by creating pull factors,” Cornyn said.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) also recommended increased DNA testing, a Trump era policy that was supposed to prevent abuse of the U.S.’s immigration policies by identifying sponsors who falsely claim to be related to migrant minors.
Padilla stated that the Department of Homeland Security still utilizes DNA testing when there are doubts about familial relationships, although Blackburn said the policy was repealed at the end of May.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) suggested prosecuting parents who choose to send their unaccompanied child to the U.S.
“I personally believe that a parent who chooses to subject their children to all the risks that come from transiting the Southern border should be held accountable,” Tillis said.
Congress has yet to come to agree on how to best protect unaccompanied minors at the border.
“They’re just kids,” Venus Bradley, a foster parent of two migrant children, told the committee, referring to the community of migrant children in the U.S.
“They have dreams and hopes for the future and, like my daughters, they deserve and need support and care in order to achieve their dreams.”