FIRST ON FOX: Republicans in the House are unveiling a new push to increase transparency and accountability at the southern border.
Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, is leading two bills aimed at stemming the flow of migrants into the U.S. It comes as border security is rapidly becoming a flash point for this Congress, with Republicans in the House and Senate insisting that reforms to the asylum system be paired with supplemental funding for Ukraine.
One bill, the Preventing the Recycling of Immigrants is Necessary for Trafficking Suspension (PRINTS) Act, would give Customs and Border Patrol agents the authority to take the fingerprints of minors ages 14 and younger.
The bill’s supporters argue it would crack down on child trafficking as well as "recycling," which refers to bad actors bringing kids with them across the border and falsely claiming them as a relative to appear as a family unit.
"There is nothing compassionate about an open border. The primary victims of President Biden’s border crisis are young children who are repeatedly abused and trafficked by the cartels," Hinson told Fox News Digital. "In fact, the Biden administration has ‘lost track’ of over 85,000 migrant children, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and further abuse."
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who is leading the PRINTS Act in the Senate along with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital, "Abusing and using a child again and again is one of the most heinous acts imaginable, and yet it happens every day along the southern border."
She said the bill will give border agents "the tools they need to identify victims of child recycling and stop this abuse in its tracks."
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The other bill is called the Southern Border Transparency Act and would force the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to issue reports on how many migrants are being paroled into the country at each point of entry, broken down by demographics and ethnicity.
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It would also mandate the reporting of data on how many migrants at those points of entry were placed into expedited removal, granted voluntary departure or other processes.
Hinson said asylum laws have grown too lax during the Biden administration, contributing to the border crisis.
"The Biden administration has vastly expanded catch-and-release and mass amnesty by widening loopholes and enabling abuse of our asylum system by illegal immigrants – and they’re hiding the full extent of it from the American people," she said. "This bill will require DHS to publish a full accounting of their catch-and-release practices and tell the American people the truth about the border crisis."
Fox News Digital reached out to the Biden administration for comment on Republican efforts to tighten asylum laws.
