WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) joined his colleagues in introducing the Preventing the Recycling of Immigrants is Necessary for Trafficking Suspension (PRINTS) Act. This legislation would empower Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents to fingerprint non-citizens under the age of 14 to combat trafficking and child recycling. It would also require the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to publicly report the number of apprehensions in a given month involving child traffickers who falsely claimed an accompanying child was a relative.
Additionally, the PRINTS Act would criminalize child recycling; require DHS to submit an annual report to Congress identifying the number of minors who were fingerprinted; and remove the Attorney General’s authority to waive fingerprinting requirements for those illegally crossing the southern border.
“The exploitation by traffickers at the southern border is vile,” said Senator Cramer. "Fingerprinting minors is a step to stop child trafficking and protect vulnerable children at the border.”
Despite every one in three human trafficking victims being children, current DHS regulation and federal law prohibit CBP agents from fingerprinting children under the age of 14. Allowing Border Patrol agents to fingerprint these children would reduce the misidentification of unaccompanied migrant children released to sponsors in the U.S. and identify victims of child recycling when they are trafficked across the border.
Additional cosponsors include U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Steve Daines (R-MT), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Ted Cruz (R-TX), John Hoeven (R-ND), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Mike Lee (R-UT), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), John Cornyn (R-TX), Katie Britt (R-AL), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and JD Vance (R-OH).
Click here to read the bill.