The Southern Border Is a Multilevel Moral Crisis – But How Do You Lose 85,000 Children?
As President Biden continues to ignore the crisis on our southern border and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas continues to say the border is secure and his department is managing the situation, actual reports of what is happening are gut-wrenching and only getting worse.
Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants continue to pour into the U.S. each month—most of them released into the country. U.S. cities are overwhelmed as they try to house and feed the thousands of migrants arriving in their communities. Schools and hospitals are also overwhelmed. However, if you believe the Administration, they have a plan to address all this and the plan is working.
We have continued to sound the alarm at the ACLJ as the issues at the border are multifaceted and only getting worse. The drug cartels have operational control of the border of the United States. In other words, they control who crosses, when, and how much to charge the migrants. Fentanyl continues to kill tens of thousands of Americans annually. The national security threat is real, and the potential impact is actually unknown, as we do not know how many people connected to terrorism have entered the U.S. We know 167 people on the FBI Terrorism Watchlist have been apprehended at the border in the last two years (a fact we’ve caught the Biden Administration trying to hide. However, with 600,000 estimated gotaways (those observed by border authorities crossing into the U.S. in that time period but not caught), we do not know how many of those people are also terrorists. This threat cannot be overstated.
However, a recent report by the New York Times and the testimony of several whistleblowers who work with the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reveal the moral blight that centers on the trafficking of children that is being facilitated by U.S. authorities. Of the 340,000 minors who crossed the border unaccompanied and were processed by the U.S. at the border in the last two years—DHS and HHS have lost track of 85,000 of them. Attempts to reach out to the children through their sponsors have failed. Our porous border, where President Biden refuses to complete a border wall because that would supposedly be immoral and unkind, is allowing tens of thousands of children to be sexually trafficked or forced to work in violation of child labor laws—as if that were not immoral and unkind.
In order to process the multitudes of children at the border quickly, the vetting process for sponsors to care for these children has been streamlined, and many so-called sponsors have not been vetted. Tara Lee Rodas told Congress last week that the U.S. government is delivering migrant children to a “sophisticated network” of human traffickers. The network process begins with children being recruited in their own countries, smuggled across the U.S. border, and delivered to so-called sponsors in the U.S.—many of whom are criminals, members of Transnational Criminal Organizations, and often are connected to the people who recruited the children in the first place.
The end result of the broken border and the impossibly flawed process of caring for unaccompanied children entering the U.S. is shocking, cruel, and immoral. The New York Times report (many of its details corroborated by whistleblowers) reveals that children are being routinely trafficked and mistreated—with virtually no hope of escape. So-called sponsors are allowed to do this with impunity at the present moment. For example, one man in Pennsylvania has applied for 20 boys as a sponsor. Another sponsor in Texas has received 13 minors from our officials. In these types of incidents, many of these children are forced into sexual slavery or work long hours in factories or on farms.
Caseworkers who spoke with the Times estimated that two-thirds of child border crossers end up employed full-time and accused HHS of ignoring the exploited kids. Many of the jobs are dangerous, and the children are often injured or killed. According to the Times, in the last report from the Department of Labor, 12 minors had been killed in labor accidents. The Labor Department now refuses to release the reports on migrant minors’ injuries and deaths.
When unaccompanied children cross the border, the Border Patrol turns them over to HHS. Secretary of HHS Xavier Becerra actually said this before Congress: “Our authorities end when we have found a suitable sponsor to place the child with. We try and do some follow-up, but neither the child or the sponsor is actually obligated to follow up with us.” This cavalier approach to the crisis of unaccompanied children entering our country is astounding. As mentioned earlier, our officials have lost track of over 85,000 children for whom they were charged to care.
As we pointed out, the investigation by the New York Times reports on children as young as 12 years old working along with migrant teens. Some work in factories, others on dairy farms, and many in the construction industry. Shockingly, some of the employers are well-known companies in the United States or their subsidiary contractors. Many are forced to work 12-hour days. Some of them never enroll in school or drop out. Those recruited in their home country are obligated to send money back to pay off their migration debt. Some sponsors require the children to give them their entire earnings to pay for room and board. If the children do not comply, they face threats to themselves or their family members in their country of origin.
The Biden Administration must stop this barbaric and immoral crisis, which is, in many ways, a crisis of their own making. It is a matter of record that illegal migration—including the migration of children—has increased dramatically under the Biden Administration. Thus, a border barrier could stop much of this malign activity on our border. Enforcing standing U.S. immigration law would help. The previous Administration often flew unaccompanied minors back to their country of origin. Binding U.S. financial aid to Mexico and Central American countries on the condition that they help us with this migration matter should be a given. It has been done before. Investigating and enforcing child labor law violations is also one obvious answer, as well as having thorough vetting of all sponsors of migrant children. Those involved in human and sexual trafficking must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
While there is no one-time magic answer to the crisis on our southern border, pretending there is no crisis is definitely not the answer. The American public should be outraged by what is happening and demand that the Biden Administration quit the political blame game and do whatever it takes to secure the border, stop the flow of illegal drugs, and address the problem and the plight of the children who are being sent to America without parents or adult guardians accompanying them. This must stop. While states are doing what they can to address the issue, the security of our borders is a federal responsibility, and President Biden is the Chief Executive of our government. He may not like it, but the buck stops on his desk.