TVPRA stopped for now, OCV bus tour heads to DC

When the House is in session, the House Majority Leader's office publishes a list of bills scheduled to reach the House floor for a vote during the following week's session. Last week's list included H.R. 1144, a bill that would reauthorize the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, also known as TVPRA, due to its subsequent reauthorizations.

I'll explain why it was troubling to see this legislation listed on the House calendar in a moment, but it was listed on the suspension calendar. The suspension calendar is a list of bills that often have broad bipartisan support and come to the floor under a suspension of House rules, meaning they don't have to go through the House Rules Committee, are often not debated on the House floor, and are even commonly passed by voice vote instead of a roll call vote. 

After seeing the bill included on this week's suspension calendar, our Capitol Hill Team sprang into action. IAP reached out to the House leadership to express significant concerns with passing this legislation and encouraged other conservative groups to do the same. Needless to say, H.R. 1144 did not come to the House floor for a vote this week, marking a victory for those of us who seek to end the trafficking of children and stop future border surges of kids.

Why is the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act such a concern? TVPRA contains major loopholes that drug cartels have exploited to smuggle hundreds of thousands of children illegally across the border during previous administrations, most prominently in 2014, 2019, and throughout the duration of the Biden Administration.

Under the act, unaccompanied alien children (UACs) from noncontiguous countries who the Border Patrol apprehends after crossing the border illegally must be turned over to Health and Human Services (HHS) in a very short period of time. Under the Biden Administration, UACs were then turned over to "sponsors" who were often unvetted, in the country illegally, or even convicted criminals. The New York Times ran several major stories on children who ended up in forced labor, and a Florida grand jury found thousands of allegations of sexual abuse. An Inspector General report from earlier this year indicated that HHS had lost the ability to track approximately 291,000 UACs, making them more susceptible to trafficking.

“Without an ability to monitor the location and status of UACs, ICE is unable to facilitate court appearances and has no assurance UACs are safe from trafficking, exploitation, forced labor, or involvement in criminal activities that may pose a risk to local communities.”

– DHS Office of the Inspector General

Even setting aside these significant problems, these loopholes have created a perverse incentive for illegal aliens in the U.S. to pay the drug cartels to smuggle their own children to the border. It creates a pull factor for illegal immigration from the most vulnerable class.

Any reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act must close the loopholes once and for all. A “trafficking prevention” bill should not simultaneously create an industry of child trafficking. For more details on UACs, along with our recommendations for how Congress and the Administration can stop the flow of illegal alien children, see our fact sheet here.

Only Citizens Vote Bus Tour heads for DC

It was another busy week for the Only Citizens Vote Bus Tour as it continues to make its way to the nation’s capital, rallying support for passage of the SAVE Act. The SAVE Act, introduced by Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote in U.S. elections. 

IAP Co-Founder and Director of Policy Rosemary Jenks joined the bus tour for its stop yesterday in Cranberry, PA, and today in Harrisburg, PA. She’ll also be with the bus during its stop at the Maryland State House in Annapolis on Monday (9/8) at 10:00 a.m. ET. You can register to attend the event by clicking here.

The tour will end next Wednesday (9/10) on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building at 12:00 p.m. ET. Rosemary will join several other coalition partners and Members of Congress, demanding passage of the SAVE Act and an end to noncitizen voting. You can register to attend the DC event by clicking here. (Registration is not required to attend the events.)

Commentary

Current Curious Media Tropes on the Immigration Beat

“A couple of recent trendy tropes involve the media’s obsession with the plight of agricultural employers hiring illegal labor and the 'Maryland Man' insistence on refusing to acknowledge that aliens are illegally present in the country.”

Immigration Articles

More great news from USCIS:

DHS Terminates 2021 Designation of Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status

USCIS to Add Special Agents with New Law Enforcement Authorities

Airbnb co-founder dumped Dems over border crisis — couldn’t back party that ‘lets in criminals and dangerous people’
We have a brief article this week from The New York Post about how Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia’s political views underwent a dramatic shift, primarily due to the Biden Border Crisis.

Next Week

The House and Senate will return next week. While the Senate processes nominations, there is still no definitive word on how Congress will fund the government by the end of the month.