PRINTS Act

This proposal aims to protect children at the border and stop adults from using unrelated kids to get into the United States. It would make it a crime for noncitizen adults to knowingly use a child who is not their close relative or legal guardian to enter the country. U.S. Customs and Border Protection would have to fingerprint noncitizen children under 14 when an officer believes the child might be a trafficking victim. If a child is unaccompanied and moved to federal child care, the fingerprints must be shared with Health and Human Services.

The Department of Homeland Security would need to report each year how many children were fingerprinted and to publish monthly how many people were caught falsely claiming a child was their close relative, along with public reporting on the number of child traffickers caught by CBP.

• Who is affected: Noncitizen adults at the border; noncitizen minors under 14; unaccompanied children; CBP, DHS, and HHS.
• What changes: New crime for using unrelated minors to enter; fingerprinting of suspected trafficking victims under 14; sharing fingerprints with HHS; monthly and yearly public reports.