As the flow of illegal immigration at the southern border continues, one group may be paying a higher price than others.

In recent years, children have increasingly become the target of transnational trafficking and recycling schemes, many of which are conducted by cartels.

Sen. Katie Britt has been a frequent advocate for increased governmental involvement to counter the growing problem. In her continued push to address the issue, she helped introduce the Preventing the Recycling of Immigrants is Necessary for Trafficking Suspension (PRINTS) Act.

“This Administration continues to turn a blind eye to the tragic human costs of its reckless agenda,” Britt (R-Montgomery) said. “The reality is that President Biden’s border policies are anything but compassionate. Every single day, untold numbers of vulnerable children are being trafficked and recycled across our porous southern border.

“These innocent girls and boys are not living the American Dream – they’re facing an American nightmare.”

In 2019, ICE identified 600 children who were “recycled,” with one child being brought across the border as many as eight times.

Britt noted that child trafficking wasn’t the only destructive consequence of an open border.

“Meanwhile, women and men continue to be viciously trafficked by the cartels, and American families and communities continue to be devastated by the deadly fentanyl flowing into our nation,” she said. “Enough is enough.

“It is past time to end this unprecedented humanitarian and national security crisis. Yet again, my Senate Republican colleagues and I are offering commonsense solutions to do just that.”

The PRINTS Acts would:

• Give U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) the authority to fingerprint non-citizens under the age of 14
• Require the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to publicly report the number of apprehensions in a given month involving child traffickers who falsely claimed that an accompanying child was a relative and submit an annual report to Congress identifying the number of minors who were fingerprinted pursuant to this Act
• Remove the Attorney General’s authority to waive fingerprinting requirements for those illegally crossing the southern border and criminalizes child recycling

Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News.

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