Hawley blasts Mayorkas after whistleblower claims DHS pulled agents from child exploitation cases to make sandwiches at border

WASHINGTON — During a second round of questioning at today’s Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) called out Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for taking special investigators off of human trafficking and fentanyl cases and reassigning them to in-person services at the southern border.

Senator Hawley referenced a whistleblower who came to him with these allegations, then questioned the Secretary. “You’re taking special agents away from investigating child traffickers and child exploitation—when you’ve lost tens of thousands of kids to traffickers—and you’re sending them to make sandwiches at the border,” said Senator Hawley. “What is going on?”

Secretary Mayorkas dodged Senator Hawley’s questions about how many migrant children the Biden Administration has recovered out of the 85,000 it has lost. The Secretary also did not deny the DHS whistleblower allegation that at least 600 agents have been pulled from law enforcement work and put on different duties at the southern border.

Last week, Senator Hawley questioned Robin Dunn Marcos, Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, about the ongoing child migrant crisis at the southern border and the 85,000 children that the Biden Administration has lost track of.