Over the last two years the Biden Administration has allowed 250,000 unaccompanied minors to cross our southern border, and at least 85,000 of these children have gone missing under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ watch.

The New York Times, not a bastion of conservative leaning journalists, has reported that while HHS checks on all minors by calling them a month after being released to sponsors, many of which were not actually family members, they reported that over the last two years the HHS couldn’t reach more than 85,000 of them and lost immediate contact with a third of migrant children. The Times’ report identified a rise in child exploitation, where children are forced into the labor force, sometimes to pay back their smuggling costs. These children were being forced to work in dangerous jobs for long hours. They were found to have been working overnight in slaughterhouses, replacing roofs, operating machinery in factories, all in violation of child labor laws. Recently the Department of Labor has identified over 300 minors working at McDonald’s franchisees.

Although Representative Ocasio-Cortez hasn’t shown any concerns over this deplorable situation, shouldn’t our other elected Representatives and Senators take a leadership effort to correct horrendous conditions that all passionate, caring Americans would not accept?