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.

‘Incompetence or dereliction’: Minnesota lawmaker rips Tim Walz as state fraud losses mount

DHS sweeps Twin Cities, arrests 400 as feds blast Walz for ‘failing to protect Minnesota’

Christmas brawl erupts in wealthy Massachusetts enclave during holiday celebration

Tyler Robinson Accused of Sending ‘Mocking’ Message with His Choice of Tie in First Court Appearance

Oklahoma man accused of threatening federal agents online

Another One: Foreign National With New York CDL Kills Man in Tennessee Crash, Could Not Read English

Latest batch of Epstein files show photos with Trump, Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, and Steve Bannon

Husted files for 2026 Senate race, launching aggressive statewide re-election push

Trump’s green light for Nvidia sales to China sparks alarm on Capitol Hill

E. Jean Carroll’s DNA refusal tainted verdict against Trump, allies tell Supreme Court

LGBT Mafia Pounces on NFL Star After He Uses ‘Slur’ in Postgame Interview

Stephen Miller Sounds Alarm Over Share of Somalis Using Welfare in Minnesota

Extreme sports star lashes out at Newsom for killing the California dream: ‘What happened?’

ICE arrests criminal illegal immigrant accused of fleeing head-on crash that severely injured Maryland woman

FBI investigating more than 350 subjects tied to violent online ‘764’ network

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.