U.S. Border Patrol agents are warning that they are seeing a surge in migrant children being drugged and exploited by traffickers and smugglers.
Exploited and drugged children as young as eight years old have been found dumped on the American side of the border after criminals have used them to illegally enter the country.
Agents warn that some of the children are being “recycled” by smugglers.
Border Patrol sources have told the New York Post that authorities have rescued numerous children at the border from smugglers and traffickers in recent weeks.
In one instance, a woman traveling with two children, ages 8 and 11, had drugged the young kids with sleeping pills.
The woman was not related to the children but was claiming to be their mother.
She showed authorities authentic birth certificates for two minors.
However, they were not for the children she was traveling with.
In another case, border agents rescued a child who had similarly been “heavily dosed with sleep aids to prevent him from talking” to authorities.
Those traffickers had birth certificates for other children, too, according to the Post.
Agents say smugglers are using children numerous times, or “recycling” them, to pose as family units and try to gain entry to the U.S.
One Border Patrol source told the Post that at the height of an immigration influx, the Biden-Harris administration had ordered them to “let family units in.”
However, this simply encouraged criminals to abduct children as a tactic to cross the open border.
Agents said they noticed the same children cycling through but with different “parents.”
“I hate thinking about it, because there were thousands of kids, and who knows where they all ended up,” the source said.
There have been reports for years about migrants wearing wristbands that correspond with how much money they owe cartels for helping them get to the U.S.
Elected officials have highlighted this exploitation, specifically to children.
The issue has led to calls for increased border security.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last year, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas:
“Along the southern border, you see thousands of these wristbands because the illegal immigrants wear them.
“Every color corresponds to how many thousands of dollars they owe the cartels,” the senator continued.
“You have turned these cartels into multibillion-dollar criminal organizations.
“And these are modern-day leg irons, because these are children being sold into sex slavery.”
WATCH:
In addition, the exploitation is also happening to young migrants as the Biden-Harris admin rushes to place them with sponsors.
Earlier this week, Muckraker posted a video of first-hand accounts of young migrants who were placed with sponsors and suffered.
One minor said her sponsor is forcing her to pay her $10,000 for taking her in.
Another young female, who ended up temporarily homeless, described a similar experience.
“She would tell me that if I didn’t have money for rent, she would kick me out,” the minor said.
“And to this day, she’s still charging me $4,000 for my trip from Honduras.”
WATCH:
Last year, it was initially reported that 85,000 unaccompanied migrant children were unaccounted for, or lost, by HHS.
The number is currently estimated at 320,000.
Due to the migrant influx, the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) has been overwhelmed.
Republicans say the department is prioritizing the speedy release of migrant children over their safety.
Still, Senate Democrats are working to loosen oversight of child migrant sponsorship.
Under the proposed “Children’s Safe Welcome Act of 2024,” the Biden-Harris HHS would have to make its decision about whether to release a child to a proposed sponsor within just seven days of receiving an application.
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