Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick Claims Migrant Children Will End Up in Sex Trafficking

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said Tuesday he believes that migrant children entering the U.S. will end up in sex trafficking, as President Joe Biden aims to reform immigration policy at the southern border.

On Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, host Laura Ingraham asked Patrick if there is anything Texas can do to “push back” on the immigration decisions by Biden’s administration, to which Patrick then gave Ingraham “the lay of the land.”

Patrick noted that a facility for the children is opening up in Midland, Texas, adding that “they are gonna have up to a thousand kids in this facility.” The GOP lieutenant governor said “there’s no staff to handle” the children, claiming the facility is run by the Red Cross and volunteers.

“They are sending children into this country having no idea where they are going to end up,” Patrick said. “And some of these children are going to end up in sex trafficking when they take these kids and send them to Uncle Bob in New Jersey, wherever it may be.”

He added, “They don’t have the staff to watch them or to track them. They don’t know where they’re going,” Patrick added.

The Biden administration dispatched the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to the border with Mexico over the weekend to help care for unaccompanied children entering the U.S. Thousands of immigrants, including many unaccompanied minors, have been arriving at the border since January.

FEMA was tasked with receiving, sheltering and then transferring unaccompanied minors crossing the border for the next 90 days, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Once the children are in a federal facility for 72 hours, they are then transferred to a family home in the U.S.

FEMA performed a similar role in 2014 when President Barack Obama also faced a rise of immigrants at the southern border.

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick at a press conference on May 18, 2020. Getty Images/Photo by Lynda M. Gonzalez/Pool

“The president of the United States is sending children from Mexico and Central America into sex trafficking operations in this country,” Patrick reiterated. “This is a design disaster. The president of the United States should be ashamed of himself for putting children in harm’s way.”

He continued, “This is not humane, Laura.” This is putting not only Americans at risk but these children at risk.”

Patrick then compared the Biden administration’s decision to send children to American family homes to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s actions with nursing homes during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.

“They are doing something I think is just as bad as what Cuomo did when he sent people with COVID into nursing homes,” Patrick said.

Newsweek reached out to Patrick’s office for further comment but didn’t hear back in time for publication.