{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/icymi-grassley-recognized-for-work-to-combat-sex-trafficking-crisis-the-only-person-in-a-position-of-power-who-cares", "ICYMI: Grassley Recognized for Work to Combat Sex-Trafficking Crisis: \u2018The Only Person in a Position of Power Who Cares\u2019", "2024-10-16", "2024", "2024-10", "Republican", "Senate", "IA", "Chuck Grassley", "G000386", "www.grassley.senate.gov", "grassley", "https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases", "scraper", "Inside America\u2019s Fastest-Growing Criminal Enterprise: Sex Trafficking\n\n\u2018Washington\u2019s lack of interest in the sex-trafficking crisis is stunning. Sometimes it seems as though the only person in a position of power who cares about the issue is 91-year-old Senator Grassley.\u2019\n\nBy Madeleine Rowley\n\nOctober 14, 2024\n\nThere is no question that the border crisis is the primary reason for the increase in the sex trafficking of migrants\u2026\n\nIn July, Republican senator Chuck Grassley hosted a roundtable on the trafficking crisis at the border. Tara Rodas, 55, a federal employee who in 2021 worked at an emergency intake shelter in California, testified that while she was there, a 13-year-old girl from El Salvador was released to a sponsor in Ohio who was affiliated with the MS-13 gang.\n\n\u2026\n\nWashington\u2019s lack of interest in the sex-trafficking crisis is stunning. Sometimes it seems as though the only person in a position of power who cares about the issue is 91-year-old Senator Grassley\u2026\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve been trying to protect unaccompanied children that are put in dangerous environments,\u201d he told me in an interview. \u201cThese are the most vulnerable people, and somebody\u2019s got to look out for them, and that\u2019s me.\u201d\n\nAs far back as 2014, when \u201cjust\u201d 57,000 unaccompanied children crossed the border\u2014less than half the current number\u2014Grassley sounded the alarm that the Office of Refugee Resettlement was having trouble accommodating so many migrant children.\n\nThe next year, he wrote a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, saying that up to 3,400 unaccompanied children\u2019s sponsors had criminal histories. Two years later, he urged the ORR to take responsibility for unaccompanied children who had ties to the gang. \u201cYour agencies repeatedly pass the buck to each other. As a result, children are allowed to disappear. When these children disappear without any supervision, they are vulnerable to join dangerous gangs like MS-13,\u201d he said.\n\nGrassley reached across the aisle in 2019 and 2021, working with Democratic senators Dianne Feinstein and Ron Wyden, respectively, regarding allegations of sexual abuse and employee misconduct at ORR-funded shelters. Grassley and Wyden\u2019s investigation found that between 2016 and 2020, ORR received nearly 7,500 reports of sexual misconduct involving an unaccompanied child staying at a shelter\u2026\n\nWith the election of Joe Biden\u2014and the border crisis that ensued\u2014other Republicans have jumped on the trafficking bandwagon, but Grassley has continued to lead the charge, using his staff to conduct significant investigations. In January, for instance, he sent a detailed letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray, detailing evidence his staff had uncovered of unaccompanied children who were suspected of being in the hands of traffickers.\n\nDemocrats have been shamefully silent on the trafficking issue. At the roundtable Grassley held in July, not a single Democrat attended. Neither did Mayorkas. \u201cDemocrats didn\u2019t come because they\u2019re just too embarrassed to talk about the shortcomings of this administration on immigration,\u201d Grassley told me. \u201cEspecially when you have HHS sending kids to MS-13 gang-related sponsors in Ohio. It\u2019s hard to explain that.\u201d\n\nAs for the Office of Refugee Resettlement\u2026 It has yet to do anything to reduce the sex trafficking that is taking place under its nose. On the contrary, it has lately been pushing through rules that will minimize the vetting of sponsors\u2026This, of course, will allow the NGOs to push migrant children through the system even faster. But it will also make it easier for gangs and criminals to \u201csponsor\u201d migrant girls after they\u2019ve crossed the border. Grassley is trying to stop that from happening\u2026\n\nRead the full piece HERE.\n\n-30-", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:57:20Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/icymi-grassley-recognized-for-work-to-combat-sex-trafficking-crisis-the-only-person-in-a-position-of-power-who-cares"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4521200209856033, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}