Palmer Calls Out the Biden Administration’s Lack of Concern for the Safety of Unaccompanied Minors

For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Elizabeth Hance (202) 225-4921

Palmer Calls Out the Biden Administration's Lack of Concern for the Safety of Unaccompanied Minors

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Gary Palmer (AL-06) issued a statement following his participation in an Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the treatment of unaccompanied minors at the southern border. Rep. Palmer highlighted the dangers smugglers and treacherous conditions pose to children as they make this journey. In fact, Teresa Ulloa Ziaurriz, director of the Latin American branch of the Coalition Against Trafficking International, estimates that a shocking "60 percent" of Latin American children who set to cross the border alone or with smugglers "have been caught by the cartels and are being abused in child pornography or for drug trafficking."

"The humanitarian crisis is not just the overcrowding of facilities at the border, it is also the danger these children are being exposed to on their way here. The Biden Administration's open border immigration policies are enabling smugglers to exploit the most vulnerable in shockingly evil ways," said Rep. Gary Palmer. This is a humanitarian tragedy the Biden Administration has inflicted on these children."

Palmer continued, "Democrats continually justify these children coming to our border to escape dangers in their countries of origin. However, murder rates in many American cities are far higher than the murder rates in these Northern Triangle countries. The highest murder rate in the Northern Triangle is Honduras at 37.6 per 100,000 compared to the 58.6 per 100,000 in Baltimore and 87 per 100,000 in St. Louis. In fact, the homicide rate in St. Louis is more than four times that of El Salvador and more than five times the rate in Guatemala. I have grave concerns that the Biden Administration is transferring unaccompanied migrant children from the border to U.S. cities where Democrats have significantly reduced funding for their police departments and that have far greater rates of violence than the countries the children left. Since the Democrats' persistence in their efforts to defund the police has resulted in unprecedented increases in homicide and other violent crimes, it may be safer for unaccompanied children to be returned to their countries of origin than to be relocated to violence stricken U.S. cities."

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