The New York Times put out a disturbing report earlier this month which claimed that the Biden administration has lost track of 85,000 migrant children, many of whom became victims of vile crimes.

In response, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley is demanding that the FBI launch an investigation. 

Hawley wants action against "modern-day slavery"

The Daily Wire reported that Hawley laid out his concerns in a letter sent on Thursday to FBI Director Christopher Wray.

"According to statistics kept by Customs and Border Protection, some 345,000 children have come across the border unaccompanied since early 2021," Hawley pointed out.

"I am sure you have seen recent reports in The New York Times that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has lost touch with as many as 85,000 migrant children. Thousands of these children are now the prey of child labor criminals," he continued.

"The FBI must mount a full-scale effort to locate these missing children and to bring to justice the criminals who are holding them in modern-day slavery," Hawley insisted.

Whistleblower says kids are "sold for sex"

"The FBI must also investigate HHS and the Department of Homeland Security for their role in facilitating the exploitation of these children, in violation of the law. This issue must be a leading FBI priority," the senator insisted.

Hawley's letter came in the wake of testimony provided by HHS whistleblower Tara Lee Rodas last week to members of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement.

"Today, children will work overnight shifts at slaughterhouses, factories, and restaurants to pay their debts to smugglers and traffickers," the Daily Wire quoted Rodas as telling the lawmakers.

"Today, children will be sold for sex. Today, children will call a hotline to report they are being abused, neglected, and trafficked — and we don’t know if they’re going to get the help they need," she explained, adding, "For nearly a decade, unaccompanied children have been suffering in the shadows."

Biden administration dismantled Trump-era safeguards

The Daily Wire noted that the Biden administration dropped a Trump-era requirement that those who sponsor migrant children be vetted and subjected to background checks.

Rodas complained that this has resulted in children being turned over to human traffickers, saying, "I thought I was going to help place children in loving homes."

"Instead, I discovered that children are being trafficked through a sophisticated network that begins with recruiting and home country smuggling to the U.S. border and ends when [Office of Refugee Resettlement] delivers a child to a sponsor," she recalled.

Rodas went on to allege that "the United States government has become the middleman in a large-scale multi-billion dollar child trafficking operation that is run by bad actors seeking to profit off of the lives of children."