To 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.
About This Bill
Committee
Latest Action · November 7, 2023
Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
The PRINTS Act requires U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect fingerprints from children under 14 who are suspected of being human trafficking victims when they enter the United States. The bill also creates a new federal crime making it illegal for adults to knowingly use unrelated minors to gain entry into the country, with penalties of up to 10 years in prison. The Department of Homeland Security must share fingerprints with the Department of Health and Human Services for unaccompanied children transferred between agencies and must publicly report monthly on apprehensions of suspected child traffickers and annually to Congress on the number of minors fingerprinted. The legislation targets human trafficking networks that exploit children as part of smuggling operations and aims to give law enforcement tools to identify and prosecute traffickers while tracking trafficking patterns at the border.
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