Republicans are pushing back on the Biden administration‘s claims that lack of congressional funding is hampering its response to the child labor crisis.
Reports emerged in late February that nearly 4,000 underage immigrants were working dangerous jobs in violation of child labor laws. The White House responded days later by saying it would crack down on the issue, with departing Labor Secretary Marty Walsh saying Congress and the Trump administration were to blame.
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“This agency was decimated in the last administration,” Walsh told the Washington Post. “If Congress chooses not to give us more enforcement officers to protect these companies that are violating the law by using children, then they’re accomplices in this.”
That didn’t sit well with Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chairwoman of the House Education and Workforce Committee.
“This administration has recklessly and intentionally pursued open-border policies,” Foxx said. “Now Secretary Walsh has the gall to say Congress is complicit in the child labor violations that stemmed directly from this administration’s ill-advised policies? Pot meet kettle. His comments are disgusting and par for the course, not based in reality.”
The New York Times reported on Feb. 25 that unaccompanied child immigrants are arriving in record numbers and ending up in factories, construction jobs, and other forms of dangerous labor. Some are as young as 12 years old, and the issue has been growing since 2021.
The Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for ensuring child immigrants have a sponsor but has pressured staffers to move children out of shelters quickly due to their growing numbers, according to the outlet.
In fiscal 2022, 130,000 unaccompanied children were processed by U.S. officials along the southern border, an all-time high, federal statistics show.
The Biden administration sprung into action to announce a “crackdown” on labor exploitation within days of the report, with new initiatives to investigate labor violations from employers and improve support for immigrants.
“This is something that we have taken action on,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Feb. 27. “The president and his administration has long focused on making sure that this growing problem of child exploitation is dealt with.”
That led to Walsh saying the Labor Department needs more funding to address the problem.
“We have a package that we’re going to be looking [for] from Congress for more money for enforcement officers,” he said. “You can’t handle the number of complaints if you don’t have the number of officers.”
But that gets causation backward, say leaders of conservative groups.
“Only since President Biden took office has the southern border has been in such chaos,” said Tea Party Patriots honorary Chairwoman Jenny Beth Martin. “Trying to pin this failure on Congress, or, more laughably, on the previous administration, is absurd.”
James Massa, CEO of conservative-leaning immigration think tank NumbersUSA, said enforcement is an available solution that the Biden administration could use at any time.
“The executive branch has everything it needs at its disposal via Title 8, today, to stop this border surge,” Massa said. “If they’d eliminate their loopholes and implement the credible fear doctrine as intended, the majority of this problem would go away.”
In fiscal 2022, 2.38 million immigrants were stopped at the border, up 37% from the 1.73 million encounters the year before. That total was more than twice the highest seen during the Trump administration, and each of the last two years have set record highs.
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The White House defended HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and his handling of immigration when asked about the issue on Feb 27.
“The health and safety and the wellbeing of children is the priority of this president, this administration, and also Secretary Becerra,” Jean-Pierre said. “That means getting kids out of congregate settings and rigorously, as I just mentioned at the top, vetting families and sponsors that would take in these children.”
