Senator Josh Hawley calls for FBI investigation into migrant kids missing under Joe Biden

Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley is calling for FBI Director Chris Wray to investigate the 85,000 migrant children who have been released into the U.S. and "gone missing" under President Joe Biden's administration, meaning the government does not have contact with them anymore. 

Hawley wrote in a letter to Director Wray that the unaccompanied minor children at the southern border are being abused sexually and have been handed over to "modern-day slave traders."

"Reporting reveals that HHS loosened vetting processes for sponsors and retaliated against whistleblowers who raised these concerns," Hawley's letter reads. "As a result, thousands of children have been handed over to modern-day slave traders. They are forced into factory work under punishing conditions. They are forced to make auto parts, process meat in slaughterhouses, and reroof houses," the letter continues.

"They are denied food, education, and sometimes fear for their lives. They suffer sexual violence. In a country that claims to value the rule of law and the protection of children, this is unconscionable."

A House Judiciary subcommittee held a hearing earlier this week titled "The Biden Border Crisis: Exploitation of Unaccompanied Alien Children," which included whistleblower testimony from former Health and Human Services official Tara Lee Rodas, according to The Daily Wire. 

Rodas said in her testimony that the U.S. government was becoming a "middleman" in a multi-billion dollar migrant trafficking operation at the southern border.

Hawley emphasized that the treatment of these children is illegal and a federal crime, his letter began. He also pointed out the total number of children who have come across the border unaccompanied since early 2021, including the 85,000 unaccounted for, is approximately 345,000, citing Customs and Border Protection statistics. 

"The pervasive maltreatment of migrant children plainly violates both the Fair Labor Standards Act, which prohibits the abuse of underage workers, and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which designates human trafficking offenses as federal crimes," Hawley wrote. 

"The FBI must mount a full-scale effort to locate these missing children and to bring to justice the criminals who are holding them in modern-day slavery," the letter states. "The FBI must also investigate HHS and the Department of Homeland Security for their role in facilitating the exploitation of these children, in violation of the law."