U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents helped confirm a migrant “child recycling” case in the El Paso Sector. They discovered child had been “recycled” in at least two prior instances, officials stated.
ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents teamed up with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Field Operations (OFO) officers and Border Patrol agents under a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program targeting migrant “child recycling” and fraudulent familial claims made by Central American migrants. Border Patrol agents and CBP OFO officers processing large Central American migrant groups identified a possible fraudulent family migrant claim, according to information obtained from CBP officials.
A CBP officer noticed several inconsistencies that led him to believe a child was not related to the alleged family member. Under continuing questioning from the OFO officer, Border Patrol agents, and the HSI agents, officials obtained enough evidence to determine the child had been “recycled” in at least two other occasions, officials stated.