Sponsors (12)
Official title: Require the Secretary of Homeland Security to fingerprint noncitizen minors entering the United States who are suspected of being victims of human trafficking, to require the Secretary to publicly disclose the number of such minors who are fingerprinted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials and the number of child traffickers who are apprehended by CBP, to impose criminal penalties on noncitizen adults who use unrelated minors to gain entry into the United States, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 9, 2025 by Marsha Blackburn · Last progress January 9, 2025
The bill aims to protect children by using biometric identification, data sharing, and a new federal offense to deter traffickers and improve placements, but it expands biometric collection and enforcement authority in ways that raise serious privacy, immigration‑enforcement, and criminalization risks for vulnerable children, families, and humanitarian actors.
Unaccompanied children will more reliably be identified and linked to protective services and safer placements because CBP fingerprinting plus HHS access prevents duplicate records, aids background checks, and supports appropriate medical/placement decisions.
Adults who exploit or traffic children face a new, standardized federal offense and better TVPA-based evidence handling, which should deter using unrelated minors to cross the border and improve prosecution and cross‑agency coordination.
Clarifying DHS/CBP responsibilities and aligning procedures with TVPA standards creates clearer roles and more consistent enforcement across jurisdictions, aiding local and federal agencies in trafficking response.
Children and their families will have biometric data collected and shared (often without explicit consent), creating substantial privacy, data‑retention, and potential security risks for vulnerable minors if safeguards are inadequate.
Expanded mandatory fingerprinting and greater CBP/DHS authority over minors, plus broader interagency data sharing, raise the risk that biometric records will be used for immigration enforcement or misapplied, chilling cooperation with care providers and families.
The new criminal offense and its narrow mens rea/relationship definitions risk criminalizing immigrants or humanitarian actors, deterring Good Samaritans who accompany children to safety and imposing prosecutorial and court burdens.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Requires CBP fingerprinting of suspected child trafficking victims, mandates DHS–HHS fingerprint sharing for transferred minors, and criminalizes adults who use non-relative minors to gain U.S. entry.
Requires U.S. Customs and Border Protection to take fingerprints from any child under 14 when an officer suspects the child is a human trafficking victim, and to share those fingerprints with HHS when the child is transferred to HHS custody. Creates a new federal crime for any adult (18+) who knowingly uses a non-relative minor to gain entry into the United States, punishable by fines and up to 10 years in prison. Requires DHS to report annually on the number of minors fingerprinted and to publish monthly counts of apprehensions involving adults who falsely claim a child is a close relative.