More than 600 Children ‘Recycled’ by Migrant Smugglers At Border: ICE

More than 600 children were “recycled” through the border over the last year, including some who were carried across eight times, by a different person each time, looking to exploit lax policies to gain a foothold in the U.S., a top ICE official told Congress on Wednesday.

And those are only cases that were detected, officials said.

The recycled children are one of the more disturbing aspects of illegal border flow over the last 12 months, which set records for the number of children and families who snuck into the U.S.

The families were drawn by a lax policy, imposed by a federal court, that gives adults a quick release into communities as long as they brought a son or daughter with them.

The result was massive levels of fraud, with adults renting or outright buying unrelated children in order to present themselves as a family, authorities said. In some cases it was a one-off, but in other instances children were “recycled” across the border multiple times, said Derek N. Benner, acting deputy director at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“We’ve identified over 600 children that have been recycled,” he said.

Middle school teacher arrested in alleged prostitution scheme at casino hotel

Stranded hikers cling to steep California mountain ridge as helicopter crew swoops in

Longtime Serbian leader Vucic’s defeat at the hands of student movement leaves Washington in awkward position

Watch: El-Sayed Staffer Lets His True Feelings About Americans and the Muslim Brotherhood Slip in Devastating Undercover Video

DHS suspends visa-free travel program for Chinese nationals amid birth tourism, security concerns

Germans Furious After Audi CEO Teams with Trump to Announce New Georgia Plant

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to why removing Ilhan Omar from Congress could be harder than Trump expects

Have You Seen Him? Police Search for Murderer Who Escaped Tennessee Prison

Breaking: Comey Charged for Reportedly Leaking National Security Secrets in 2016

Not even sky high gas prices or the Iran war will stop Trump supporters voting MAGA

James Comey charged with leaking national defense information

DOJ seeks to prosecute Comey over alleged national defense disclosure

Trump says Brazil election likely ‘rigged’ as Bolsonaro demands Lula’s victory be annulled

Illegal immigrant accused of beheading Iwo Jima monument granted bond

Man found dead on Disneyland property near entrance to ‘Happiest Place on Earth’

That means that once they came across with an unrelated adult, they were then separated by the smuggling operation and taken back south across the border to be brought back again with a new adult, he said.

“Some of them had indicated they’ve made the trip as many as eight times, with separate, unrelated adults each time,” he added.

Mark Morgan, acting commissioner at Customs and Border Protection, recounted one case where they caught a Honduran man who’d “bought a child” for $80, then attempted to cross into the U.S.

“Why did he do it? Because the loopholes in our system told him — and the smugglers made sure he understood — ‘You grab a child, that’s your passport into the United States,’” Mr. Morgan told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Mr. Benner detailed another case where a Guatemalan man showed up at the border with a girl he claimed to be his daughter. Authorities didn’t immediately sniff out the fake relationship and under the lax U.S. policies toward families the man and girl were released.

The girl was “repeatedly” sexually abused and beaten, until she was finally rescued, Mr. Benner said.

ICE began in the spring to use DNA testing to try to weed out fraudulent families at the border.

That involved taking people who presented as families, but where suspicions were raised, and testing DNA to try to confirm the purported relationship. At the height, Mr. Benner said, about a quarter of the cases tested came back as fake families.

Cartels began to adjust their strategies and the rate is now 13% to 15%, he said.