HHS ‘knowingly’ transferred migrant children to criminals, sex traffickers, GOP senators charge

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Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines unveils message to Biden on border crisis: 'See for yourself'

Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines joined 'Fox & Friends First' to discuss the latest on the border crisis and what is at stake with the looming end of Title 42. 

EXCLUSIVE: Republican senators are accusing the Department of Health and Human Services of "knowingly" transferring unaccompanied migrant children to criminals, based on a new whistleblower claim.

In letters to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (HSGAC) Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., first obtained by Fox News Digital, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and other GOP senators demand a hearing to investigate the shocking whistleblower claim.

"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 senators wrote.

"This cannot be swept under the rug. Congress must immediately take action to stop the atrocities this whistleblower claims are being committed by the federal government itself," they wrote. "The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs must call a hearing to further investigate these whistleblower claims."

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Xavier Becerra, secretary of Health and Human Services. (Photographer: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The senators cited recently released video of a former HHS employee, Tara Lee Rodas, who was detailed to the Emergency Intake Site in Pomona, California. Senators said her testimony described several "disturbing" claims about the agency's Unaccompanied Children Program, including the department's failure to place children into the homes of "safe, non-criminal sponsors."

"[Most people] have no idea that children are going to unrelated people. That children are definitely — we have proof, evidence — that they are being recruited and transported. They are then in debt bondage," Rodas alleged in the video published by Project Veritas.

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"We know that children have been trafficked through the [Unaccompanied Children] program," she said, adding that the government is "paying to put children in the hands of criminals."

House Minority Leader led a GOP delegation meeting with Border Patrol in Eagle Pass, Texas. (Fox News' Bill Melugin)

HHS acknowledges that unaccompanied children are "especially vulnerable" to trafficking and abuse, while noting the "majority" of the children are cared for by a network of licensed providers.

"The age of these individuals, their separation from parents and relatives, and the hazardous journey they take make UC especially vulnerable to human trafficking, exploitation, and abuse," HHS states on its webpage detailing the program.

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"The majority of UC are cared for through a network of state licensed ORR-funded care providers, most of which are located close to areas where immigration officials apprehend large numbers of children. These provider facilities are state licensed and must meet ORR requirements to ensure a high level of quality of care. Care providers operate under cooperative agreements and contract," HHS says.

HHS and Sen. Peters did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said she is worried about the trafficking of women and girls across the border. (Office of Sen. Joni Ernst)

The accusations by the senators come after border agents have said they are worried about the alarming number of young girls who are being "brutally" raped and assaulted by human smugglers as they trek across the southern border, and have demanded the Biden administration to take immediate action to stop these "heartbreaking" crimes.

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"The Border Patrol, they told us that about 30% of the women and girls that are being trafficked by the cartels up to the border are being sexually abused along the way. And those are just the ones that are reporting," Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, told Fox News Digital in July during a border trip.

"And so the Border Patrol agents feel that 60% of them having been abused would be a more accurate number. So it really is appalling," she said.