FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, January 26, 2016
MEDIA CONTACTS: Kevin Smith (Portman) | 202-224-5190
John LaBombard (McCaskill) | 202-228-6263
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Chairman and Ranking Member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, today announced that they will hold a public hearing on Thursday, January 28, 2016, at 10:00 a.m. in SD-342 titled “Adequacy of the Department of Health & Human Services’ Efforts to Protect Unaccompanied Alien Children from Human Trafficking.”
The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will unveil the results of its six-month investigation into the federal government’s policies and procedures for placing unaccompanied alien children with adult sponsors. The investigation was triggered by a federal indictment of labor traffickers in Ohio whose victims included children placed by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement—a division of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS).
“It was shocking to learn that multiple children placed by HHS fell victim to the terrible crime of human trafficking,” Portman and McCaskill stated. “That led us to launch an investigation of the systemic vulnerabilities of the HHS child placement process to abuse and we intend to report the results of that investigation at this week’s hearing.”
WHAT: PSI Hearing on HHS Placement of Migrant Children and Human Trafficking
WHO: U.S. Senator Rob Portman
U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill
WHEN: Thursday, January 28, 2016
10:00 AM
WHERE: Senate Dirksen-342
A livestream will be available here.
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